


SEALed Deal

by padfootfreak14



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies), Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:14:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootfreak14/pseuds/padfootfreak14
Summary: Most smart people learn from their mistakes, some do not and you were one of those some. Mistakes you'd have the opportunity to repeat often.
Relationships: Owen Grady/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

They say that youth is about making mistakes and hopefully learning from them. Some people keep making the same mistakes even when they know better. You were one of those people. You was barely thirteen when she was supposed to be staying with her friend Kelly and Kelly’s mother. Well Kelly’s mother decided to take a trip so they were ditched off with Kelly’s dad. Early on You developed the habit of just going with the flow as it was. So when Kelly climbed in to what seemed like a really high tech camper and insisted they were joining her father on his trip instead of catching a cab to stay with some woman named Karen, you went with it. Kelly also insisted that it wasn’t going to be dangerous and they’d just be helping him out.

One very long trip later and you found out that Kelly was very wrong. At a first glance it seemed cool to see real life dinosaurs. It was also your first experience with InGen and it wasn’t a good one. They acted like being responsible for the dinosaurs being on the island gave them the right to torment then and steal them from their homes. Had they all left then maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad but Sarah and Nick went to go release the captured dinosaurs and came back with a baby that had a broken leg. Kelly didn’t recognize it as anything but being dangerous but you recognized its features and were more than happy to leave with Ian and Kelly for a safer place. Even after Ian went down from the high hide to warn Nick and Sarah about the Rex parents there was no way in hell you were coming down from it.

Nothing gives a thirteen year old nightmares quite like being on the run from an angry T-Rex with a bunch of people who would just as soon exploit it for money. You blamed them more than you blamed anyone else, if they hadn’t stolen and hurt the baby Sarah and Nick wouldn’t have tried to help it and this wouldn’t be a problem. At least the group she was with actually cared, even if this entire experience had gone desperately downhill and continued to go that way. It seemed simple enough to get to the old communications building to get a ride off the island. The remaining five, after the Rexes had apparently eaten Eddie, got separated from the InGen group which started to seem like a good thing. When they reached the tall grass Ian seemed to know what was hiding there and had everyone running through as quickly as they could.

You thought that you had reached safety when they reached the compound until a raptor leapt on Sarah. The raptors were faster and smaller than the T-Rex and definitely a lot more dangerous. For some reason they didn’t scare you as much and you mentally likened them to wolves and sharks even if they were currently trying to kill you all. In the end the important thing was that they made it safely to the helicopter and to you it was an added bonus that she didn’t have to have any more involvement in this entire ordeal. Ian had her headed back home where she watched the news coverage about what happened in San Diego and that should’ve been that.

Your mother used the incident as a reason to basically get rid of you, stating that you was getting in too much trouble and so on and so forth. You didn’t understand it, why you was being shipped off for your brother to deal with. You didn’t even know Billy that well, when your parents separated Billy ended up with your father and you with your mother who moved away and got remarried. You knew he was almost eight years older than you and that he was a paleontologist, or at least studying it. You were also under the impression that you’d just be staying with your then something like twenty-one year old brother for a little while. He seemed confused at the now fourteen year old suddenly appearing considering that he was busy with school but Billy seemed okay with the idea of having a week or two to reconnect with his baby sister and did his best to make you comfortable in his small apartment. As weeks started to pass and your mother never came back or made any attempt to return calls, the siblings became worried and confused. 

Billy had no idea what to do with a young teenager, he knew that you should’ve been at school and knew that clearly there was more to your mother’s line about the two of them reconnecting than there seemed. He wasn’t sure that you could really be happy stuck living in a tiny apartment in Montana with him and he was having a hard time figuring out why you seemed so closed off. Billy wasn’t exactly sure he was up for the challenge but when it finally reached the point that he turned to the authorities to try and find your mother, he fought to keep you. You reminded Billy of himself and he wasn’t going to just let someone take you away to be put in someone else’s care until someone tracked down your mother.

The problem with you turned out to be more with other people than anything. You didn’t get along with them, you didn’t trust them, and you didn’t want to work with them. It made Billy’s attempts at making sure you were in school and to prove that he was a suitable guardian very difficult. The courts weren’t sure a college student was up for the task but you were no more willing to leave your brother than Billy was to let anyone take you. You threatened to run away if they tried to take you from him and outright told anyone that asked that you hoped they never found your mother because Billy was better to you than their mother ever was, at least he didn’t abandon her. That was just something you would never be able to forgive your mother for.

Probably the only reason the courts finally gave in was because they finally located dear old mom and step-dad. You had already known that your step-father was in bad health, he’d never really been all that healthy and the suspicious part of her mind wondered if that had been why your mother married him. You hadn’t known how sick your mother was and even if her illness was the reason for ditching you with Billy that didn’t make it any better. Instead of being honest she had made you feel like a burden that she was dumping off on the only available person. Their father had been dead a few years and now that your mother and step-father were as well Billy was the only family you had left. After your prior insistence you be allowed to stay with her brother, the courts finally gave in and gave Billy permanent custody.

The letter from the lawyers reminded you of when your father had died. A letter had come telling you that you was to receive half of his whatever, the money you’d gotten still sat in a savings account. Thanks to your mother’s wealthy husband this inheritance was substantially larger. It was considerable enough that after any physical property was sold it was incredibly impressive. It still set you off that your mother thought she could just posthumously throw money at you and Billy like it made up for just ditching you on him. Still, they weren’t going to decline the money out of spite. It was a sizeable safety net in their savings accounts and enough left to ensure that Billy didn’t need to sacrifice what he was working for to be able to take care of you. 

It didn’t take much for you to convince Billy to let you stop going to public school and do distance learning. It was easier to not have to take you to school and it gave you all the time in the world to spend with Billy. It also gave you the chance to learn more about what your brother was so passionate about. Billy’s idol became yours and when you weren’t getting farther ahead in your school work than you needed to you were helping Billy and Dr. Grant at dig sites. The pair started sharing the passion for adventure and dinosaurs. Despite being thick as thieves, you never told Billy about the incident on Isla Sorna, never hinted that you had been there. You finished the work to complete high school early and while you tested the waters to decide if you wanted to go in to herpetology or paleontology you helped at the digs.

Billy was Alan’s site manager and you insisted to him that it was an accomplishment to be a site manager by twenty-five let alone for such a renowned paleontologist as Alan Grant. Billy often found himself then reminding his sister that she was doing pretty well for herself already being in college at seventeen and working alongside said renowned paleontologist. She could take a look at a new bone or photograph of finds and identify what dinosaur it was faster than some of the most experienced paleontologists could. Billy was secretly hoping she’d follow in his footsteps but if she asked he always told her that she should do whatever was going to make her happiest, even if it meant having to move away.

In the three and a half years since you’d been with Billy, your biggest fear had been to be separated from him. You hadn’t like being around other people in the first place but distance learning let you stay with Billy more often than not and in his down time he taught you things about paleontology and occasionally took you on little trips to break up the monotony of Montana. He didn’t need to try so hard to keep your interest, you loved how things were. Despite how long it had been since they’d seen each other they were so much alike that most times Alan felt like he was looking at twins. Their enthusiasm for the work, that wild adventurous streak, the way they were always looking in to the newest innovations, the newest way to do something. You especially looked to the future while keeping your feet planted in the dust of the past. The rapid prototyper had been her idea while Alan was off trying to round up more funds for the current dig.

You knew that Alan disliked technology but you was sure that even he couldn’t dislike this. They tested the machine using scans from the raptor skull and made the first replication of the resonating chamber, which Billy then gave to her with a sly wink. It wasn’t like the cost of renting the machine changed based on how much you used it, they could just make another one to show Alan when he got back. Then there was the matter of this Paul Kirby that had stopped by looking for Alan, he wouldn’t say what exactly he wanted just that he had a business proposition for Alan and that he’d try coming by again when Alan was due back. In the meantime life went on and you got your continued amusement out of the subtle way Billy kept flirting with Cheryl when he tried to help her.

The Brennan siblings had hoped that Alan would return with better news, it seemed like every time they were getting somewhere the money was gone and they had to pack it up again. No one ever said that being a paleontologist was easy though. It wasn’t getting any easier when people just assumed that you could simply study the creations on Isla Sorna and the hell with actual science. That much the three of you whole-heartedly agreed on, InGen’s creations weren’t real dinosaurs and you needed to study the bones. You cursed your age when you had to go back to the apartment while Alan and Billy went out to dinner with Mr. Kirby and his wife.

When Billy got back and told you that the Kirbys were going to contribute to the dig site in exchange for Alan coming with them for a fly over of Isla Sorna you were surprised. Alan made no secret about how he felt regarding islands full of dinosaurs so hearing that he’d agreed to the trip was a bit of a shock. You didn’t think anything else of it but when Billy told you that the two of you could come along you should’ve said that you had too much work to do. You’d never told him about the trip there when you were thirteen, but what harm could a fly over do? Billy had apparently gone through quite the spiel to convince Alan to let you come and how much you would surely love to see flesh and blood dinosaurs.

You didn’t give any indication of your mild wariness as you and Billy prepared for the trip. It didn’t take much effort but you both liked to be ready. Another hobby you’d picked up from your brother was photography, mostly pictures at the dig sites or from their trips but you loved taking pictures. Your cameras had been gifts from each other though Billy used an older bag that he swore up and down was lucky. Sometimes he told you the story again from before you’d come back in to his life but you usually reminded him how many times he had told you. Even Alan made a crack at the bag on the small plane so you had to hear the story again anyway. You had to agree with Alan that the entire story seemed idiotic but if Billy wanted to believe the bag was lucky okay. Either way both of you were continuously taking pictures of the landscape and of the dinosaurs when they came in to view. Especially the dinosaurs.

Wherever they landed the plane didn't look familiar, but it was a fairly large island and it was just as possible that the first time you’d been on another side of it. It was also very possible that you were going to have a panic attack and Billy wouldn’t even know why he’d just think it was you flipping out over landing on the island. It was already bad enough the one man had knocked out Dr. Grant when he tried to protest landing the plane, Billy and you had both elected to stay on the plane with him until he’d woken up. If it weren’t for how burned in to your memory the roar of a T-Rex was, that would have been your first assumption as to the source of the sound in the jungle. Already this trip was shaping up to be a lot worse than the first one, what with the plan grazing what at a first glance looked to you to be a Spinosaurus. Throw in the plan crashing in to trees, the Spinosaurus trying to claw everyone out of the plane wreckage and it was off to a terrible start. With Billy already looking worried and guilty enough so you were in no hurry to bring up that this wasn’t the first time you’d been here.

The only thing worse, by your estimate, was trying to escape the Spinosaurus in the trees and coming across the T-Rex. Had no one moved it might’ve been okay but running had the T-Rex chasing the group right back in front of the Spinosaurus which then killed the T-Rex and gave you a new idea of fear. It made sense that Paul and Amanda didn’t refuse the idea of the siblings coming along, they couldn’t have without revealing why they were planning the trip in the first place. You had a little more faith for Eric than Alan did, you knew first hand that a twelve-year-old could survive Isla Sorna, but being alone cut those odds down a lot. The cameras seemed like a pointless thing to salvage but you and Billy liked your pictures as much as they liked Alan having you classify things even if you knew without Billy’s mistaken guesses of Suchomimus and Baryonyx that they had encountered the more specific Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus.

You were as bothered as Billy and Alan that the check was no good, at least if you all survived there had been the hope that they could keep the site going a while longer. You felt for the Kirbys though, you couldn’t imagine your own parents ever having cared enough that they would have held out hope and went out searching for you. Even you had to be more concerned when they found the body, when you and Kelly had braved the island there had been a group of adults looking out for him but now they had proof that if Eric was alive he was alone.

You stayed with Billy while he finished packing up the parasail, joining the group at the collection of raptor nests. You quickly got photographs before running back up to Alan as the group continued. You had wondered what took Billy so long to photograph the nests but at least you hadn’t lost him and at least now you’d found what seemed like a safe shelter. It was an old InGen building, bringing back memories of the communications compound where you’d had her first raptor encounter. You rolled your eyes at Billy’s show of kicking through the old vending machine, might’ve had a few quips but he was providing something to eat. That something sat heavy in your stomach when they walked in to what must’ve been an old breeding room or hatchery. 

You could have gone without the accidental raptor picture as much as you could’ve gone without running from it and seeing Billy trapped by it at that. Shelter didn’t stay shelter for long as the group ran for the jungle with the sounds of raptor calls echoing behind. Insanity had you snapping probably terrible pictures as you all ran for the trees, stopping only to make sure Alan didn’t get trampled as he grabbed Billy’s dropped camera bag. It terrified her to end up separated from Billy but at the very least you were still with Alan and surely you’d find Billy in just a little while.

Being with Alan didn’t prove any safer, just had the two of you ambushed by raptors, one of which you felt nearly graze your shoulder before smoke scared them off and Alan grabbed your wrist to pull you along. It didn’t take much effort to put two and two together and realize the boy that had saved you was Eric. It was during the light meal and after Eric’s conversation with Alan that you divulged your own story about Isla Sorna, the first time you’d spoken to anyone about it but with the talk of survival and mentions of Ian it seemed like a decent enough time to finally talk about it. Alan seemed almost unsurprised by the whole thing

Billy was just as terrified to have lost you, he hoped desperately that you were with Alan but he was supposed to be responsible for you, not someone else. It was hard to even rest when for all he knew the raptors could have gotten you while he was safe in the trees. Both groups waited for daylight, hoping that the raptors had moved on before they dared venture out. You stayed with Alan and Eric in their quest for the coast. Billy would know to stick to the plan and head for the coast as well even if he didn’t tell the Kirbys that their assumption on dinosaur size was wrong.

You found Eric to be smarter than expected, knowing to stay near the compound and that larger dinosaurs were on the outside of the island. Neither Billy nor you could contain the relief on your faces at the reunion, relief that was short lived when they realized that the Spinosaurus was right behind you. You were so sick of running but this time once you were through the gap Billy kept you pulled right next to him, waiting until they were locked inside the new building to give you a once over. Your own happiness and relief was even shorter lived when Alan opened Billy’s bag. You had a hard time trying to rationalize your brother’s actions after it had caused everyone to be hunted down by raptors, but you didn’t approve of the way Alan responded either. Billy was still your brother, he just made a mistake and you weren’t going to turn your back on him for it.

You would have preferred going across the foggy bridge as a group, it seemed like it would be safer and the entire environment was making you uneasy, you could see through the fog that it seemed like they were in a giant cage and you were afraid of what it was supposed to hold. As it seemed to go on this island, the mystery wasn’t a mystery very long and brought to them a Pteranodon, yet another that you had managed to avoid on the first trip. You hadn’t even realized that the winged creature had enough strength to lift a person but there they were. You had been ahead of your brother, stopping when you could hear Alan yelling for him. You turned just in time to watch Billy leaping from an opening in the fencing with the sail opening behind him. Screaming his name, it was enough to have you racing along the cage only to be cornered by one of the Pteranodon before being plunged in to the water as the weight of it collapsed a section of the caged walkway. You scrambled along after Mr. Kirby and Alan to go after Billy.

“No! We have to help him!” You screamed as you felt hands close on your arms, dragging you away from helping your brother. You could help him, you just needed to get him away from the Pteranodon! “Let me go! Billy!” You screamed again, even as they pushed you in to the water and out of the grasps of the Pteranodon chasing them. What right did they have to stop you from trying to save your brother? You realized that it was Alan pulling you on to the boat, keeping you there so you didn’t swim right back in to the massive bird cage. Listening to Alan talking to Eric about Billy made your blood boil. He had talked to Billy like he was less than nothing and your brother had just sacrificed himself to save all of them. Of course Billy was right to want to see this, to be a part of this. Even in your grief and rage you couldn’t help but be in awe of the herds of herbivores in front of you.

The sound of the satellite phone and the appearance of the Carnotaurus that was sent off by the scent of the Spinosaurus dung was a momentary distraction for you, you’d have been just as satisfied to be eaten by it but what point was your brother’s sacrifice if you just gave up? It didn’t actually matter much anyway, there you were locked in a cage again with that damned Spinosaurus trying to eat all of you, or possibly drown you all. If they could survive this, Ellie was the only hope left of getting off the island. You had little hope for that, you were trapped in the cage with the Spinosaurus reaching in for you all like a special treat. You could feel its claws cutting in to your skin, slicing open your shoulder

You couldn’t bear listening to the Kirbys and their little family talk, not when you’d just had yours ripped away from you, the only person you had left in the world was gone just like that. The reappearance of the raptors was just one more thing that could go wrong and of course had to. You were surprised that the raptors concluded Amanda had taken the eggs, out of all of them your smell would have been closest to the actual egg thief. You didn’t think that returning the eggs was even going to make a difference, any more than Alan’s attempts at using the resonating chamber model was. The difference was made by an unfamiliar noise that sent the pack scattering with their eggs in tow.

The other four were eager to run to the sound of the helicopter but you just shuffled along behind them. They may all have something to drive them to be happy to go home but you didn’t feel that way. All you’d had was Billy and now he was gone, nothing to take back of him but a few silly pictures on the cameras and his stupid lucky bag. That stupid bag that was now always going to remind her what Billy had done that made him feel like he had to redeem himself by sacrifice. You didn’t want to go anywhere without your brother, how could you walk away when you’d left your heart in that cage. The others didn’t notice that you hadn’t moved, didn’t notice the pained look that crossed your face when they yelled for the man with the megaphone to stop because it reminded you of Billy guessing what attacked them.

You were perhaps seconds away from dropping to your knees to let out the screams you’d been holding in since the bird cage, from screaming out your grief and your loss whether it attracted something big and nasty or not. The only thing that stopped you was the arm that gently wrapped around your shoulder to lead you to the waiting helicopter. In your tear filled vision you nearly mistook the man for your brother, seeing only the blurred outline of someone whose hair reminded you of Billy. Perhaps to be blamed on blood loss and stress but you had almost been sure it was his spirit trying to get you to leave. When you finally stepped in to the helicopter and saw what Alan was gesturing his head towards you realized how desperately wrong you had been.

It was in that moment that you felt mind numbing guilt overcome any relief you had felt at seeing Billy alive. As if you hadn’t felt awful enough at not fighting harder as you were drug away from saving your brother, thinking that you had left him to be killed by Pteranodons. But there he was, lying on a stretcher covered in bandages and clearly alive. You had left in instead of fighting to stay with him, you’d left him to try and survive by himself. You knew that Billy would have done everything in his power and then some to try and save you if the situations had been reversed regardless of the consequences it could have for him. But you had left, let yourself be pulled away when you could have and should have been helping you brother. You couldn’t force yourself to go down and see him and just collapsed in to the nearest seat and buried your face in your hands, missing the SEAL that had escorted you to the helicopter moving to Billy’s end to whisper something to him.

“Where’s my sister?” Billy tried to rasp over the sound of the helicopter lifting off. Any other person may have been grateful to have survived, to have been found before they bled to death but Billy’s only concern was where Y/N was. If she was still with Alan why wasn’t she there, why hadn’t she come to him? Her screaming for him as the Pteranodons had descended on him still echoed in his ears, surely if she had been that upset then she would have come right to him when she saw that he was alive. “You said,” He started to rasp again. The SEAL couldn’t have been any older than Billy was at most but Billy just remembered hearing him give his word that he’d make sure Y/N got off the island.

“She’s safe, she’s sitting at the other end,” He was assured “I think she’s just a bit too shaken up right this second.” Y/N was safe, that was all that mattered. Billy knew she could come back just fine from being shaken up, he’d seen her do it before. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment but knowing that his sister was safe and sound even if she wasn’t right there next to him. Everything else could be sorted later, Y/N inevitably screaming at him for pulling his stunt with the Pteranodons, Billy apologizing repeatedly, trying to earn Alan’s forgiveness if it was even possible. Still, he had a hard time fighting the disappointment when Y/N didn’t come with him, when he didn’t hear her fighting and arguing to be allowed to stay with him while he was carted off to better equipped medics.

You were still fighting your guilt when they reached the ship, silently allowing whoever it was to lead you off to have your injuries taken care of, including the gash from the Spinosaurus. When you finally snapped enough out of her stupor you realized that it must be the man from the beach, the one you’d started mistaking for Billy. There weren’t really many similarities, Billy was leaner and definitely shorter than this man was. But they had the same kindness to them, that same air of a person that naturally looked out for those around them. You felt like you should say something to him but you weren’t sure what.

“How’re you doing?” His voice startled you from your pondering and saved you from having to come up with something to say first. When you only shrugged in response you heard him laugh. “I think I might’ve brought along the wrong girl, your brother told me you’d be easy to recognize because you’ve got a loud mouth on you.”

“What would he know anyway,” You shot back, not realizing until after you’d spoken just how raspy your voice was, likely from all the screaming and probably dehydration. You were more than certainly exhausted and didn’t really have it in you to be up to your usual snappiness. “Stupid jerk,” You muttered, feeling the tears cloud your vision again.

“Whoa, easy there Y/N. You’re okay.” The way you shook your head rapidly at him was enough to warn him that he needed to get you calmed down before you gave yourself a panic attack or anything else that would probably end up just as bad. “Come here,” He added, holdings his arms out to you. He didn’t expect you’d actually walk in to them let alone let him wrap them around you. “You have to try and calm down before you make yourself sick okay? I told Billy I’d look out for you and make sure you were okay until he could do it but I need you to help me out here. Just work with me a little bit then I can get you some food and something to drink and we can sit somewhere quiet.”

You couldn’t help but feel thrown by the entire experience and how desperate it had made you to see humanity again. You never would have let anyone but maybe your brother touch you like this before, you wouldn’t have let a stranger try to comfort you. You felt like you needed something thought, something to grasp on to that would keep you from completely losing it. You couldn’t go to Billy, not yet, not if the medics would even let you. So you tried, you did what you could to work away from the edge you felt yourself on if only for the promise of quiet and something to eat that wasn’t a long expired candy bar. You were almost disappointed when the arms around you moved and remained to loop around your waist to lead you.

You were grateful that he let you eat in silence just for the chance it gave you to get your thoughts together without the outside influences making you more confused. It was the first time you’d had since the rescue to just thing and reflect without all the noise and without someone prodding at you to assess how bad your injuries were. His presence was comforting, a silent reminder that you were safe again, a reminder that even badly injured, Billy was still looking out for her. It was also a reminder that strangers knowing more about you than you did them made you uncomfortable.

"What did my brother tell you about me?” You questioned after you’d finished the light meal he’d gotten for you.

“Just your name and that I’d know you by the loud mouth,” He half laughed “Had to take a guess with the girl that looked young enough to be his sister since you were so damn quiet.”

“I’m not usually, it’s just been a long couple of days.”

“I’m sure it has, looks like you held your own pretty well though.”

“It wasn’t my first time on the island,” You responded before you could catch yourself, shocked that you found yourself so comfortable talking to this man that you’d told him something she hadn’t told anyone before this trip, not even your brother. “Four years ago, my friend and I stowed away thinking we were tagging along with her dad on some project and we ended up on the island. I think it must’ve been the other side of the island because nothing we’ve seen has looked familiar.”

“You are one tough lady. How old were you?”

“I’d just turned thirteen. When’d you join the Navy?”

“Right out of high school, didn’t know what else to do with my life so I figured what the hell you know? Might as well do something that might be worthwhile.” He responded. He didn’t mind talking to you, it seemed to be calming you down more and he’d been intrigued by you since they found the group. He wasn’t sure that tough even did you justice at this point. Sure the Navy could be rough but you’d faced off with dinosaurs twice in your teen years and he had to admit he was definitely impressed. “I’m Owen by the way,” He offered, realizing that he knew your name because of your brother but you had no idea what his was.

“Might be?” You questioned, glad to feel a little less like strangers with him now that you knew his first name. His last you’d gotten easily off his uniform but you weren’t going to call him Grady.

"Haven't decided yet I guess. I don't know how to describe it, I just don't know if I’ll feel like it’ll be worth doing.”

“I think I get what you mean. Like other people think it’s the most worth it thing to do but you aren’t sure that it is for you? I’m like that with paleontology, Alan and Billy think it’s the best but I’m not sure that I’m in to it enough to spend the rest of my life doing it or if I want to try something else.”

“Exactly like that,” Owen responded, pausing a moment. “You’re seventeen.”

"How observant.” You quipped back. “Billy let me drop public school and do distance learning. I finished early so I started working on college and working on the dig sites with Alan and Billy.”

“And I’m sure you already know what else you’re considering.” Owen teased

“Herpetology, I considered Marine biology but once I got to the field work portion I’d have to move off somewhere near the ocean so I cut it down to Herpetology and Paleontology.”

“Don’t want to leave your brother?”

“He’s all I have left, our mom ditched me with him after the first time I ended up on the island then she disappeared somewhere apparently to die. If I don’t have to I’d rather stay with him. But I mean if I found something that meant that much to me I’d go and I’m sure he’d want me to. I’m just afraid that it’ll go back to how it was before and I spend how many more years never seeing or hearing from him.”

"Well I haven't had the chance to really talk to him, but I don’t think he’d let you get away with not hearing from him at the very least. I mean hell, the guy fought off dinosaurs to get back to you, doesn’t seem like someone that would let you leave to pursue your passions and never talk to you again.”

“Do you know how he’s doing?” You hadn’t seen Billy since the helicopter ride. It was your own fault really, you could’ve gone down to his end and sat with him or demanded to stay with him but you hadn’t. You hadn’t been up for dealing with the guilt of having left him in the first place but the worry was starting to gnaw at you now.

“I don’t, but I’m sure if we get you cleaned up a bit they’ll let you in to see him.” With as many injuries as they’d found Billy with Owen was sure they’d consider him an infection risk and not want any more chances for contamination near him. Sister or not he doubted that they’d let you stay with your brother in the state you were in just then. You were also fairly certain you knew that you looked like a mess and hopefully you’d at least let him keep helping you with these little things. You certainly looked less jumpy than you had on the beach. “How about it Dino Girl? Get you cleaned up and go find your brother.”

"Okay." You responded simply. What you would have loved was a hot shower and clean clothes but for now you would make do with a sink. You were confused by the little flip your stomach gave when Owen helped you get spots you’d missed but marked it off as settling nerves.

"You gonna be alright from here?" Owen asked as he stopped you in front of the door to the medical bay. He knew he probably shouldn’t have stayed around for so long but with the state you were in he wouldn’t have felt right just leaving you by yourself. If he thought he could get away with it he’d stay longer but pretty soon someone would come looking for him and if he could at least leave you in an alright mental state and with your brother he’d feel a little better about having to leave. He had to admit he’d gotten a little attached to the you.

“I guess I’ll have to be. Besides, I’m sure you have to get back to wherever you’re supposed to be.”

“Probably should’ve gone back sooner, but I wanted to make sure you’d be okay.”

“Maybe we could keep in touch? Write each other or something.” You offered. Sure you hadn’t known him very long but you appreciated how he’d been taking care of you and you found yourself feeling a bit fond of him. There weren’t many people you talked to and it would be nice to maybe have a pen pal of some sort.

“Well that depends,” Owen teased “You got something to write on?” You opened your mouth to admit that you didn’t until you remembered that you still had Billy’s bag and he always kept a pen and paper tucked inside to write down anything he couldn’t document just with photos. “Write down where I can get ahold of you and I’ll give you mine, won’t always be the same but at least you’ll have it.”

“I’m not always in the same place either, but they’re good at forwarding our mail,” You admitted as you passed him the notebook. It was quiet for a moment while he wrote down his information before passing you back the notebook.

“Alright Dino Queen, go see your brother. You’ll hear from me soon.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Yeah it is, now get!”

“Bye Owen, and thanks for taking care of me.” You responded softly, leaning up to quickly kiss his cheek before stepping in to the medical bay. Aside from your brother’s recovery and hopefully their return to the dig sites, now you had one more thing to look forward to in the form of your sweet SEAL pen-pal.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting to know Owen

Settling back in upon your return to Montana, you’d nearly forgotten about Owen and his promise to contact you soon. As soon as you’d walked away from him you’d been entirely focused on Billy to the point that you hardly left his side, which he tolerated for a little while. Life went on, the Kirbys presumably returned home to Oklahoma and you returned to Montana with Alan and Billy all too happy to forget about the whole thing. Alan and Billy had been quick to reconcile which had solved the concern in the back of your mind of what you and your brother would do if Alan wanted to wash his hands of Billy after the incident on the island. I was almost life back to normal, as if the physical scars weren’t a constant reminder even if you could hide yours under a shirt.

You didn’t even realize that you’d never mentioned more about Owen to Billy than the fact that he’d stayed with you until you calmed down a bit and then took you so the medical bay, at least until the first letter showed up and your brother was staring at you confused. Billy’s confusion turned in to his brotherly overprotectiveness, which was completely unnecessary in your eyes.

“He does know you’re underage.”

“It isn’t like that! We talked for a while when he was helping me calm down and I asked if we could stay in contact. I liked talking to him.”

“You don’t like talking to anyone, that’s why you begged me to let you drop public school.”

“Well I liked talking to Owen but it’s not like he lives down the road and we can hang out. I thought it’d be nice to have someone to talk to that doesn’t already know everything that’s going on in my life and isn’t going to think I’m weird. You’re the one always telling me I need to make some friends.”

“Yeah, some people around here so you aren’t always sitting around with me. Not some guy in the Navy, I just wanted you to live your life so you aren’t thirty wishing you’d have done more than spending all your time with your brother.”

“I like spending my time with you believe it or not. I’d rather be thirty and know I got to spend as much time as possible with the person that has actually been there for me instead of wasting my time with people that probably won’t even be bothered to be in my life more than a couple years. And I don’t care that he’s some guy in the Navy, we clicked. Besides, you’re the one that told him to make sure I was okay and he stayed with me until I was.”

“Fine, but if he tries to convince you to run away with him you tell him to fuck off.”

“You’re ridiculous!” You laughed, sitting down to read your letter.

Hey Dino Girl, hope you guys got back to Montana alright. I’m sure you’ve been busy watching over your brother the whole time and giving him hell for scaring you like that in the first place. You guys are lucky to have each other. Our chat got me thinking, girl like you with your goals figured out, if you’re that specific about what you want to do, I’ll bet you’re just as specific about your favorite things in your preferred fields. So how about it? Dinosaur, reptiles, marine creature? This is the sort of stuff pen pals write about isn’t it? I honestly don’t have a clue. I’ve been hearing some stuff about the Navy wanting to train dolphins, help them detect mines and stuff they can’t see under the water themselves. Sounds pretty cool. Try not to spend all the time with your head in the books though, live a little. Take a trip with your brother or something, just try and avoid islands full of things that want to eat you this time. Sorry this isn’t real long, not much going on from my side. Anyway, tell your brother I said hey. You take care of yourself, not that I think anything in the states will be much trouble for the intrepid dinosaur fighter.

“Owen says hey,” You called out to your brother, laughing at the letter. It also reminded you that as close as you were to Billy, you’d told three other people about your first time on the island, but not him. “Hey, uh. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“No, you can’t join the Navy.”

“Ha ha very funny. I’d never join the Navy in the first place, I’d be bored out of my mind. So you remember how mom just out of the blue showed up and left me here? Said we ought to reconnect.”

“Yeah, kind of hard to forget someone ditching you with a teenager and then disappearing. I mean shit, if she wanted to pass you off she could’ve just said so. Wouldn’t have been such a bitch to get the courts to let me keep you then.”

“That wasn’t the real reason, at least that’s not the reason she told me. She basically said that I was getting to be too much trouble and that I ought to stay with you a while. Which I guess she obviously meant as she was going to leave me with you and never come back but whatever, fuck her.”

“Too much trouble my ass, you were the quietest fourteen-year-old I’ve ever met in my life. Which might’ve been more terrifying than suddenly being responsible for said person. I assume you’re going somewhere with this.”

“I’d been to Isla Sorna before, right before I came to you.”

“What the fuck are you talking about.” And he was reacting every bit as badly as you expected.

“I had this friend, Kelly. We were supposed to stay with her mom but her mom ditched us with her dad who was going to ditch us with someone else because he apparently had some big important thing to do. Kelly thought it was some work trip so we’d just go along with him, so we hid out in this camper. Only it wasn’t a work trip and he didn’t want us to come because he was going to Isla Sorna. Totally reasonably reason to tell your daughter and her friend that they couldn’t come with you and help out. And before you ask, and you probably already guessed, it was that thing with Ian Malcom and San Diego. Ian is Kelly’s dad. And at first you know, it was really cool because there are these extinct animals in the flesh right in front of you.”

“Yeah, it starts cool and then something tries to eat you. Jesus Christ Y/N why didn’t you ever say something?!”

“I didn’t tell anyone about it until this time around. Alan and Eric were talking and they mentioned Ian and I thought it the story would make Eric feel better since he’d done so well on his own. And then when I was talking to Owen he said something about me holding my own and before I even realized it I was telling him about it and I can’t have them know and just keep it from you. And even them I didn’t really tell the whole thing to, just that I’d been on the island before.”

“Well maybe you should tell it now. No wonder you were so closed off.”

“Well mom didn’t help my trust issues, and neither did Kelly since I never hear from her again after the fact. So it started alright, being amazed by this like stampede of herbivores. Except they were running from InGen who had come there to capture some to take to a park they wanted to build in San Diego. I guess Mr. Hammond had warned the one guy Nick that they might deal with something like this, so that night he and Sarah snuck in to their camp and set everything loose. And I mean that might’ve been fine but on their way back they found this chained up baby T-Rex with a broken leg that they took back to the camper to try and help. I didn’t go with them; I knew what it was. So we were hiding with Ian and Eddie in this thing that kept us up in the canopy and away from where anything could eat us. Sarah wouldn’t answer the phone in the camper when Ian was calling to warn her that the parents knew she had the baby so he left to go warn them. A little while later Eddie left me and Kelly in the high hide where we stayed until Ian came back. I guess the parents found the camper while they were mending the baby’s leg and once they gave back the baby the parents pushed the camper off the cliff. So we had to work with the people from InGen to try and get to this communications compound. The Rex showed up again at the camp because it could smell its baby’s blood on Sarah’s jacket. Ian tried to tell everyone not to move but they all started running anyway and we had to hide in this little cave behind a waterfall where we were barely out of reach. I guess we were lucky because we got to the grass after InGen so the raptors were all busy and we were able to run through. We finally got to the compound where there were more raptors, they almost got Sarah. Kelly kicked one through a window. Nick had beat us there so the helicopter was waiting for us. On the way off the island we saw where InGen had sedated the male Rex and caged him to take to their new park. Once we were back Ian dropped us off and you probably know what happened in San Diego after that. So yeah?”

“That is not so yeah.” Billy returned, coming over to wrap his arms around you. “Let me put you through that all over again.”

“I’m kind of over the first time, it was scary then but for the most part I really wasn’t that close to being eaten by anything. I didn’t think there was any harm in going again, see them from a nice safe distance. It was a pretty good idea in theory when you think some crazy rich people are about to give the dig a ton of money to give them an aerial tour. Besides the worst part about this trip wasn’t the T-Rex or the Spino or the Raptors or any of the other stuff. I thought you were dead. I thought they made me leave you but you weren’t dead and then it just felt like I should’ve fought them harder to help you. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“I’m glad you weren’t there. You’re my baby sister and I wanted to protect you, nothing else was important to me but that. And I’m sorry I put you through that, all I kept thinking is that you could’ve been killed because of what I did and if I could fix that even a little…”

“It wouldn’t have been fixing it by leaving me with no one.”

“I know, I wasn’t thinking then, I just went for it and it went wrong and all I had was hoping that Alan didn’t let anything happen to you. Then the Navy found me down river and all I cared about was that they made sure you got the hell off that island.”

“Well not to upset you more, but if Owen hadn’t been there I probably would’ve just run back in to the jungle when we hit the beach or just stand there and start screaming whether it brought something out or not. I didn’t want to go back without you.”

“Then I’m glad he was, I kept hearing you screaming for me. So if we can make a deal to never do that to each other again, that’d be great.”

“You better never do that to me again! You’ll just have to outlive me.”

“Not a chance, you’re going to outlive me, we’re going to stay off dinosaur islands and die of old age.”

“Forever single and still digging up dinosaur bones.”

“Hey, I can live with that if you can.”

“I’m glad she left me with you.”

“Yeah, so am I. I don’t know what I’d do without you around nagging me for doing something stupid or telling me to clean up.” Billy laughed back. “Seriously though, I’m glad you’re here Y/N. You were worth any bit of trouble you gave me and then some. Now let’s quit with the sappy shit, go write your boyfriend back.” He laughed again, trying to dodge the pillow you threw at him.

“He’s not my boyfriend you jerk! Forever single remember.” You didn’t really think your brother would stay single forever even if you couldn’t really see what the big deal about a relationship was. It wouldn’t be so bad if he found someone, they’d just have to meet your approval first. Boyfriend or not though, you did definitely want to write back to Owen as soon as possible.

You got me, as soon as he was well enough I was on him about making me think he was dead and before that I was just constantly hovering. I tell myself that I’m lucky to have him a lot, that I’ve got a brother that cares so much about me. I told him about the first time I was on Isla Sorna, I thought he’d be angrier at me never telling him but he was just really upset that I had to go through that and then have our mother just drop me off with him. And I’ll have you know I do more than just learn, when it’s the off season for the digs Billy usually takes me on some adventure with him, it’s been a bit of a tradition with us but I think this year we might just count dinosaurs as our adventure. That does sound like an interesting application for dolphins, a better use of their intelligence than having them jump and do flips for a sardine. If you can’t guess, I’m not much of a Sea World fan, I really think it’s horrible. I told Billy you said hi, he seems to think that you’re going to twist my young mind to get me to run away with you. Brothers. Right again about the animals, I’m very specific. Favorite dinosaur, surprisingly enough, is the velociraptor, if we’re going to prehistoric but not technically a dinosaur, definitely Megalodon or maybe Sarcosuchus. As far as reptiles I like the stuff in the croc family and I can’t really pick a favorite, though gharials are really interesting. So are Komodo Dragons and Monitor Lizards. Marine life I have to split too because there are so many. Dolphin and Cape Fur Seal for marine mammals, Great White Shark and Whale Sharks. I also like Narwhals, Otters, Sea Turtles, Pufferfish, Pacu, Rays, and the Coelacanth. The last one was around with the dinosaurs and until very recently they thought it was extinct. Sorry, I have a lot of favorites especially when it comes to prehistoric and marine. There’s so much about them that we’ll never really know. But now you’ll have more to write back, tell me about your favorites and all of that fun stuff. We don’t have a lot going on here right now just because Billy needed time to heal and the dig site isn’t the place to do it. Once he’s back up to it though, he smoothed things over with Alan and it’ll be back to business as usual. Stay safe out there.

While you hunted for an envelope you grabbed one of the pictures that you’d printed up from Isla Sorna, one where you and Billy had found a quick moment to make light of the situation and took a few pictures together on the trek. It almost seemed silly to add but after making the promise with Billy and looking out for you, it also seemed like a nice little thing to add in. Before he let you seal the envelope and drop it off in the mail, Billy insisted on adding a quick note of his own.

Anyone else and I’d probably throw a fit about them sending letters to Y/N but she told me how you helped her calm down and looked after her, and you kept your word when you told me you’d make sure she got of the island. It’s nice that she’s at least talking to someone new, give her someone else to go on about thing to and believe me she will. When she gets in to something she gets in to it hard and she likes to talk about it to anyone that’ll listen. Anyway, thanks for looking out for her. She could use someone else in her life that takes an interest. If she’s opening up to you don’t take it for granted, she doesn’t with very many people.

You weren’t sure if it bothered Billy or if he was amused at how excited you got when a new letter came from Owen, but he did seem surprised that there was one for him as well.

I get it, just looking out for your little sister. You aren’t wrong about her going on about something, but it’s endearing that she gets so enthused about it. Y/N is one hell of an interesting girl, but I promise I’m not trying to convince her to run away with me. I’ll take it as a compliment that she wants to talk to me, I’m glad to talk to her too. Better than hearing the shit my ship mates have to talk about, at least she’s got a brain on her.

“Ooh, is Owen trying to get you to run away with him?” You teased “If he is tell him I said I’m not sharing you. But ha-ha, my letter is longer.”

So what you’re telling me is that you really enjoy any animal that will probably kill you, can’t say I’m surprised. Can’t blame you about Sea World either, just seems sad to me. Your brother is something, we talk on the ship for a little while and already I’m trying to steal you away. I don’t know that I have a favorite dinosaur, T-Rex is pretty classic? Clearly I don’t know my prehistoric animals as well as you do. Surprising reptile pick for someone living so far north, they’re still cool as hell if you don’t piss them off, you would’ve loved living by the coast, see stuff like that all the time. Dolphins hands down though, smarter than some of the people I work with for damn sure, they do go for that program and I’d be all over it. Get in the water with them, see how they work. Ever been to the coast? I’m guessing you guys took that picture on the island, looks like a nice place if you don’t know what lives on it. I failed pretty hard on your animal questions so I’ll have to give you something else to satisfy your curiosity.

Finishing the letter would have to wait for later, the two of you were already running late to meet up with Alan as it was. Your response was probably easily twice as long as Owen’s letter had been. T-Rex? Really? Out of all the commonly known dinosaurs there was he copped out and went for the T-Rex. You did give him credit for making up with his terrible answers by telling you more about himself, but you still went on quite a bit about his insight in to dinosaurs. You liked his enthusiasm at the prospect of working with dolphins, it seemed like something he’d enjoy a lot more than whatever they had him doing. Even Billy seemed to warm up to him after whatever Owen had said in his letter, and so a friendship found itself forming between the three of you. Letters weren’t constant but they never failed to bring a smile to your face.

When you turned eighteen Billy gave you a choice, you could have the college experience and move in to a dorm, or stay with him. Staying meant the two of you really needed to upgrade out of the little one-bedroom. You loved your brother dearly but the two of you were constantly on top of each other and there was no such thing as your own place. He wasn’t surprised when you said you were staying, especially when the other option was living in a building with a ton of people you didn’t know with almost no peace and quiet. As convenient as apartment living had been, the two of you still had substantial sums of what you still called blood-money just sitting there. It took a little while to find the most convenient location but in the end the two of you traded up for a house. Plenty of room for the two of you to live, had a guest bedroom, had space for you both to have your own work area. You’d gotten so used to the apartment that it seemed like it had been forever since you lived in a house but this was a definite improvement.

Letters with Owen had started seeming scarce, or maybe it was just because you were always so loaded down with work that it seemed ages before you got that little break. Despite having the ability to submit quite a bit of your work online, most times you preferred to do it in person. It gave you the chance to discuss things with the professor, know that you physically handed them your work and it got Billy to not get on you about spending most of your time in the house or with him on digs. You were only half surprised to get home and hear another voice along with Billy’s it wasn’t that rare for one of the dig pals to come by or something.

“Y/N, come in here. Got a little surprise for you.” That was suspicious, Billy was terrible at surprises and your birthday had been months ago. As far as you knew nothing special was going on either. He better not have gotten a pet, neither of you had time for that right now.

“What is it?” You started questioning, squealing when you entered the room.

“Hey to you too Dino Girl,” Owen laughed

“Hey now!” Damn baby sister jumping on someone…some guy. Girl was growing up too fast.

“Don’t hey now me! You can’t surprise me with something this exciting and not expect me to overreact.”

“You’ve greeted him, you can get down now.”

“Should stay here just because it bothers you,” You shot back, letting go of Owen anyway before turning to said visitor. “Jerk! You never said you were going to show up!”

“That’s the point of a surprise. Besides, I didn’t want to go making promises and have to back out if something changed.”

“I hate surprises, but I’ll let this one go,” You said, turning back to your brother to hug him.

“Yeah, yeah. Try and behave yourself, I’ve got work to do. We’ll go out for dinner later or something.” So he might’ve already made a not so subtle warning to Owen, friend or not, that there would be no funny business going on. It was about the only reason he was willing to leave the pair alone in the first place.

“So you got me, I’m definitely surprised.”

“I would’ve mentioned it before, just didn’t want you to be disappointed if it didn’t work out.”

“I think you’ve been talking to my brother too much now, scheming behind my back. I don’t know if I would’ve been disappointed in something I ever expected to happen in the first place.”

“Have some time off for a bit, didn’t have anyone else worth visiting. Billy was way more okay with it than I was expecting.”

“Uh huh, how many times did he threaten bodily harm?” Please, you knew your brother and his tendencies. He wouldn’t have let Owen come out to see you if he hadn’t set ground rules first.

“He left out the bodily harm threat, at least verbally. Repeated no closed doors, a lot, no night time visit to each other’s rooms.”

“You’re staying here!?”

“Caught that did you. That was his idea.”

“So how long is a bit?” He’d probably be sick of you by the end of the day anyways.

“’Bout a month. Remember that thing with the dolphins I mentioned?”

“Mentioned repeatedly. Of course I remember, you brought up dolphins like I brought up digging up bones.”

“They’re going for it, need some times to get things set up but in the meantime it’s nothing but free time.”

“That’s fantastic!” You laughed, hugging him again. “Congratulations! Oh my god how excited are you?”

“I haven’t decided if I’m more nervous or excited yet.”

“You’ll do fine, dolphins are among the easiest marine mammals to train, and they’ve been working with humans for probably centuries if not more. We don’t always hear accounts of it until someone stumbles on the information. But if they’re going to try with anything dolphins are definitely the best start.”

“Told you she’s got a mouth on her,” You heard Billy call from the other room.

“I’d yell at him but he really isn’t wrong.”

“I think I’ve probably learned more from you in the last year than I did from school. That’s meant as a compliment by the way.”

“I prefer spending time with books than people, at least I’m finding out something new that way.”

“People are overrated; you aren’t missing out on a whole lot. Just do what makes you happy.”

“Okay fortune cookie Owen. Let’s find something to do until dinner, I’ll save showing you my collection until I’m less likely to scare you off.”

Really, if Billy’s unnecessary protectiveness hadn’t scared Owen off and he didn’t mind you being a frequent rambler, your collections were nothing. That month was fantastic, the boys swapping stories, being able to say something to Owen and not have to wait for a letter back. Half way through the three of you even went on a short trip. The only downside was having to share Owen’s company with Billy most of the time, funny how quickly your brother had gone from suspicious of him to being all buddy-buddy. You were of course a little let down when he finally had to leave, but Owen promised to visit again some time and in the meantime it would be back to writing letters and maybe moving up to the occasional phone call. You still insisted to Billy that Owen was your friend first, rather childishly if you might say so, but those two never would’ve spoken again if it weren’t for you.

The planning worked surprisingly well, you wrote to each other less but since he was doing preliminary preparations for the work he’d be doing you were able to speak often on the phone and conversations were by no means short. If it meant you were tired in the morning so-be-it but you got so wrapped up talking to him that you’d lose track of time. With Billy the two of you had a common ground that was often discussed, but with Owen it was often one of you teaching the other something new or sharing something that had happened that the other wasn’t around for. So, when the opportunity arose, you jumped at the chance to go out and visit Owen. He couldn’t swing enough time to justify coming out to Montana but you had some open time and you’d get to see what he was up to. Billy was less than excited at the aspect of you going off on your little trip, especially without him and especially when you were going to be alone, with Owen. It was a solid week of irritating big brother before you finally left with the promise to call him as soon as the plane landed so he knew you got there alright.

“What, no chaperone?” Owen laughed when he greeted you at the airport.

“I kept waiting for him to change his mind and insist his nineteen-year-old sister couldn’t possible go off on her own.” Wow had he changed in the last year. Friend or not you weren’t blind, Owen was an attractive guy, but last time you’d seen him he hadn’t seemed quite so…muscular? His hair was a bit shorter too.

“Nineteen already?” He teased.

“It’s weird that it’s been two years already, it doesn’t feel like it. This last year though.”

“Yeah, I missed you too Dino lady,” He responded, wrapping you in a tight hug.

“How come I’m Dino Lady now? What happened to Dino Girl? And when did you get so ridiculously strong, jeez.” You laughed, squealing a little when he lifted you.

“Well you’re a mature young lady now, can’t call you girl forever.”

“I give you permission to, Dino Lady makes me sound like I’ve got a hoard of them or something like the cat ladies. You keep talking about that and I’ll start calling you Billy. He’s getting all dad on me now and it’s weird. I get it, I’m ‘growing up’ but it isn’t like I became a legal adult and took off or something.”

“You’re his baby sister. I mean come on, he’s been taking care of you since you were what, fourteen?” Owen responded, letting you go to take your bag. “Now you’re an adult, doing things by yourself. Probably weird for him to get used to.”

“Then he should stop encouraging me to go out and live my life while I’m young. As far as I’m concerned I’m young another ten years and then I should consider settling down and not adventuring maybe. I probably still will. And you didn’t answer my other question.”

“I didn’t know you thought I wasn’t before smart ass. Job is going to be more physical, good idea to work out more. You aren’t exactly getting feeble yourself.”

“Dinosaur bones can be heavy, and it’s always fun to see the look on the college boys’ faces when the girl is lifting more than they are. Not that I think I have anything to prove to them, but still.”

“Hey, you don’t have to justify it to me, I already knew you were a tough girl. I don’t think Billy has much to worry about, you’ll be giving them hell more than he will.”

“He doesn’t need to worry in the first place because I’m not interested. I don’t have the time for some guy that’s going to expect me to have time to be with him all the time and have all these expectations of me. I’ve got my own stuff I’m working on and it isn’t worth the time and effort of finding someone that’ll work with that. Besides, I’m just fine on my own.”

“Not interested doesn’t mean he’s got nothing to worry about, he’ll worry anyways and look out for you because he knows how a guy thinks and I’m sure he hears them talk. And be honest, how much do you really tell him?”

“They can talk all they want, just let them try something with me. And if you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, of course he knows I’m staying with you.”

“In my little one-bedroom place, just the two of us.”

“I didn’t give him specific details…”

“Because?”

“Because even though he knows you and he trusts you he’d get all weird and parenty over me, staying alone, with you in your little place. It wasn’t worth having to convince him that the weird idea his brain gives him about us are ridiculous. I’m obviously never going to completely convince him, which is why when he was lecturing me before I left I told him if I got really bored and decided I wanted to bang you, I’d make sure I was safe about it.”

“Are you trying to make me wreck this car?!”

“It was worth it to see his face! I’m telling you he’s got it in his head and if I can’t convince him otherwise that was my last option to shut him up. Maybe you shouldn’t get so flustered about it.”

“I’m driving and I was not expecting that to be what came out of your mouth.”

“Please don’t get awkward about us being boy and girl now.”

“I’m not! How did you even get him to let you come after you said that?!”

“He stomped off actually, when he came back he said that if I came home pregnant he was going to hunt you down. He can’t tell when I’m joking obviously, but I’m not coming home pregnant so he can calm down and not have such a cow.”

“He can’t tell because when you joke you say it like you’re serious and you do it to see how we respond. I’m on to you.”

“I didn’t say it like I was serious that time, I said it really obviously sarcastically. Which reminds me, I know you told Billy you were going to sleep on your couch while I’m here, I’ve heard you talk about that couch you aren’t sleeping on the couch.”

“You are really demanding, I’m not putting you up on my couch, you get the bed.”

“Or we could just both sleep in the bed, like mature rational adults. Billy can assume whatever he’d like but I don’t see any reason we don’t just share the bed, unless you’re hiding some jealous girlfriend I don’t know about. In which case I’d like some warning so I don’t get mauled by her or something for getting too close to her man.”

“Everything we talk about and you think I’d have a secret girlfriend?”

“That’s the only reason I can possibly come up with as to why sharing would be an issue. My brother isn’t going to show up, he’s got work and even if he didn’t I didn’t tell him specifically where you live. Mostly because this is my first alone trip and I want it to stay an alone trip where he doesn’t get to have any part of your time.”

“So really, you’re the jealous one.”

“I’m not jealous, just stingy and don’t like feeling like a third wheel.”

“Alright not jealous, we share the bed. We can even pretend your brother doesn’t exist while you’re down here. What’s that look for?”

“I told him I’d call when the plane landed,” You responded sheepishly.

“Call him!”

“I am, you distracted me!” Billy however, wasn’t the least bit surprised that you forgot even if he didn’t buy your store that Owen distracted you with a Grizzly Adams beard. You weren’t surprised either that he wanted to talk to Owen, even after you insisted he was driving and of course Billy didn’t want him distracted did he? “What?”

“He told me to try and not feed you to a shark if you talk too much.”

“He told me before I left that he was going to tell you that you could feed me to a shark if you wanted to. That horrible liar. Next time there’s a snake at the site I’m going to let him think it’s dangerous and not help him.”

“Even though the only venomous snake in Montana is a rattlesnake and he should be able to tell the difference?”

“He doesn’t like snakes remember, he doesn’t wait around to see if it makes noise he just books it or yells for me to get it away. And apparently I’m the only person on these digs that actually knows how to properly handle a snake so you don’t get bit.”

“I don’t think anyone else is doubling in herpetology either. Still can’t decide?”

“I think I’m going to just do both actually, most of the course work is pretty much the same aside from the geology stuff for paleontology. And they go together, unless we find evidence that dinosaurs weren’t really like reptiles at all which is entirely possible.”

“You are incredibly ambitious.”

“Says the guy who is going to train dolphins to find underwater dangers, that’s way more ambitious and way cooler.”

“Agree to disagree.”

“You’re terrible in an argument you know?”

“Maybe I just don’t want to argue with you. Well, here we are,” Owen returned as you pulled up to his place.

“Oh my god this view is so fucking amazing, I might have to prove Billy right and run away and stay with you here forever. Wow.”

“I forget that the only other time you’ve been this close to the ocean you were in a plane.”

“That was amazing too, in a holy shit look how amazing and vast this is sort of way. This is just right in front of me and it’s so amazing.”

“Don’t ever lose your enthusiasm, you have no idea what it’s like to see that amazement on your face.”

“Have you ever seen something that’s just so incredible that you can’t describe it. Like for the rest of your life you’ll remember that thing or place or person and just think about how it made you feel.”

“Once.”

“Aw, not sharing?”

“Maybe later, warning you now inside isn’t going to be one of those things.”

“Actually this is still nicer than the apartment I shared with Billy for four years. I like it, minimal but still personal. Half expected a poster of bikini girl on a corvette or something.”

“Clearly you think I’m too much like your brother then.”

“No bikini posters actually, lots of scattered papers and books and paleontology stuff but no half naked women. Even when I first moved in. He’s lived like a monk as long as I’ve been there. It’s weird.”

“I hope you aren’t looking for an answer from me.”

“I should’ve told him to get some while I was away!”

“This is why he told me to have fun with you isn’t it. ‘That handful is your problem now’ he says. Makes sense now.”

“You know you love it! I don’t think the two of you would know what to do without me.”

“No, we probably wouldn’t.”

“Nicer than Billy, he said he’d have carried on living a sane life with peace and quiet. Horrible lie, he’d be bored without me.”

“We both would. Any preference for dinner?”

“Not really, I’m trusting you not to feed me something gross but this is your turf so it’s your problem to decide.”

“Out for dinner it is.” Dinner was followed fairly quickly by going back and you falling asleep. It had been a long day, a long flight so one minute you’d been flopped on his bed talking about god knows what and the next minute you were out. When you woke up you curled up under the covers and curled up against Owen. How he was already awake was beyond you.

“Well I’ve got to be about the most boring guest ever.”

“Didn’t figure you’d be up for much yesterday, surprised you didn’t fall asleep in the car.”

“Oh my god you have a picture of us on the ceiling above your bed!” You said, noticing the taped up photo on the lower ceiling above the head of the bed. “Don’t I feel special.”

“Old habit.”

“Well I still feel special that the trip meant enough to you that you keep a picture of it where you can see. I keep mine on my desk, not sure what Billy did with his. I had so much fun with you guys.”

“Never a dull moment around you Brennans.”

“I’m really glad we stayed in contact. Now it just feels like there’d be this missing piece if we hadn’t. And I feel like I’m being super sappy right now.”

“I get it, I think I would too. Probably shaped like a shark.”

“Aw, I’m surprised you didn’t go for dinosaur.”

“Shark gets them both, got your prehistoric and your marine life. Miss Megalodon.”

“Don’t knock Megalodon, that thing would fuck some shit up if it was still around. You’d think twice about wanting to step foot near the ocean.”

“I know better than to knock the fifty-foot mega shark, extinct or not. Put it right there with knocking you on my list of things that are a bad idea.”

“Owen Grady! Are you implying that I’m as threatening as a Megalodon?!”

“You might be worse. Ow! I meant it in a good way.”

“How is that to be taken in any sort of good way?!”

“You can be very intimidating when you choose to be. I’m just saying I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end.”

“You haven’t even seen me trying.”

“I’ve seen you when you’re not. You want to spend all day going back and forth about whether or not you’re intimidating or are we going on your grand adventure. Because I seem to remember promising something exciting.”

“I can just argue with you while we’re on the adventure.”

“Just get ready,” Owen laughed, getting out of the bed. “I’ll be making breakfast.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A budding relationship

As promised, the trip with Owen was plenty exciting. With the exception of today when Owen was called in and you had to stay back; despite his repeated apologies it wasn’t a big deal. You hadn’t expected him to have as much time to spend with you as he did so you hadn’t even touched the books you’d brought with you. You were just as content to sprawl across the bed reading, which was exactly where you were when Owen got back.

“I’m almost done with this chapter,” You offered briefly. “Alright, you look bothered,” You noted, marking your place in the book and setting it aside. “What’s up? Hey, no ignoring me!” You continued, hopping off the bed to get in front of him. “What’s wrong? You were alright when you left.”

“They suspended the program.”

“What, why? For how long?”

“Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know. Until they find more dolphins or whatever the needed to do. Could be a while.”

“I don’t know what to say without sounding insensitive so I’m going to settle with saying that really sucks and I know how excited you were, and of course this,” You replied, wrapping your arms around him.

“You and your hugs.” Had a great time, hug. Had a bad day, hug. Sad, hug.

“I’m not always the most tactful, hugging is usually a safe bet.”

“Lucky for me you give good hugs then.” Owen conceded. “Look, I don’t know how much longer you’re really gonna want to hang around here. There isn’t much to do over any real period of time.”

“What about you?” You responded before laughing. “Bad context! What I mean is I don’t want to miss out on hanging out with you, once this stuff does get started who knows how often I’ll get to see you.”

“I just don’t want you to get bored.”

“Well, I do have one suggestion since you said it’ll probably be a while until they contact you. A nice way for me to not miss out but neither of us gets bored. Unless you really just want to get rid of me so you can hang out with your hot girl coworker or whatever.”

“What’s this suggestion and how likely is it to get me hunted down?”

“Moving targets are harder to hunt. Road trip! Get to a good place then work our way back, could go somewhere or we could just go to Montana at the end and hang out more there. Not like I really gave Billy an end date, just a promise that if I stayed a while I’d make sure I didn’t get behind on anything. I’m already pretty ahead so road trip is definitely an option.”

“Lot of choices for a start point, I’m driving.” Just like that the trip was planned. Reach a start point and go from there. Start in Florida, go along the coast until you hit Louisiana then head north to Missouri, west to Colorado and finally north until you hit Montana. If you didn’t stop and maybe sped a bit, it was a 2-day drive. The two of you were figuring you’d spend at least a week or two on the trip, enjoy some of the more spectacular sights instead of just going. That was also the point of the route you were taking instead of a more direct one. You also had no intention of telling your brother that you and Owen were taking the two-week road trip back to Montana. Nothing but the two of you, some great scenery and quality time. You never would end up sharing many details of the trip with your brother, keeping it to yourself just seemed to make the time mean more. No feeling like the third wheel, no competing for Owen’s attention, just the two of you sharing new experiences and having fun.

“You know what you never told me?” You questioned digging a drink out of your bag in the backseat.

“I don’t, but I know you’ll tell me so you can make me tell you.”

“When we first got to your place, I asked if you’d ever seen something so amazing you couldn’t describe it and you forever look back and think about how great it made you feel. You said you’d tell me later but you haven’t.”

“I feel like you’re expecting something huge.”

“Am not!”

“You.”

“Me what?”

“That’s the answer, you.” He responded, glancing over at you. “Don’t look at me like that, you don’t see the way your face lights up when you get excited, and I know you love your specifics so the time I mean was on the ship. Get you off the island and you were this quiet thing, get you talking and it was a whole different story. Everything you’d been through and you just took it in stride and went on doing whatever you wanted to be doing. Never met anyone like that before and I haven’t since. Don’t ever change, anyone that tells you to isn’t worth your time.”

“You really like telling me not to change,” You responded sheepishly. “I swear you’re like the only one that thinks that, everyone else thinks I should be friendlier or put more importance on my relationships with other people or this or that. Billy not so much but he still thinks I’m a bit to closeted, funny coming from the guy that starts flipping out if someone shows interest in me. Thanks for not being like everyone else, the pressure gets really old. I’m serious, you never make me feel like I need to blend in to what everyone expects.”

“I don’t think that’s something you should have to thank me for.”

“Well I am, eventually you’ll go back to all your Navy fun and I’ll just have to remember all the fun we have when everyone else starts bugging me again. I feel like you’re the only person I know where we can just live our lives and it isn’t like it’s a pain for the other person.”

“That’s because it isn’t, we’ve always known we both have our own lives and our own schedules. It just matters more to us that when we do have the chance we take it.”

“Fortune cookie Owen makes his reappearance.”

“Y/N changing the subject to avoid deep conversation makes her reappearance!”

“I’m not changing the subject! Maybe a little. Yeah we take the time now but one of these days you’ll meet someone that doesn’t mind working around your schedule and thinks you’re awesome and I’ll just be that dino girl off in Montana that you used to hang out with sometimes.”

“Something wrong with you now?”

“You know what I mean, that’s exactly why I ignore attention from guys because I don’t ever want to have to stop being around the people that are important to me because of someone else. It’d be fine for a little while but then it’ll turn in to ‘why do you spend so much time talking to them’ and you have to make compromises over jealousy and it’s stupid.”

“I do know what you mean, I think you missed what I meant. And anyone that wants you to cut someone you care about out of your life so they’re happier isn’t someone that should be in your life anyway Y/N, you obviously know that.”

“Pull over!” You warned, feeling your phone buzzing in your pocket, waiting until the car had stopped to answer.

“I’m assuming you decided to extend your trip, any particular reason you couldn’t call and mention it?” Worrying brother right on cue.

“I left my return open-ended in the first place, but since Owen still had some free time and I’m not missing anything back home I wanted to make the most of it. I said I’d call before I hopped back on a plane to come home.”

“You also said you’d let me know you’re still alive every so often and I haven’t heard anything from you for the last week.” The week which you and Owen had been spending on your cross-country trip. “I don’t expect you to hurry back, I’d just like to hear from you periodically.”

“I know, I’m sorry. Horrible excuse but it just completely slipped my mind that I haven’t called in a while. I’m still alive, I haven’t driven Owen out of his mind yet, we’re having lots of fun, safe fun. He’s making sure nothing bad happens to me just like he promised. So you better be staying out of trouble too.”

“You know there isn’t that much trouble to get in to up here. Have fun, it’ll give you something to daydream about when you’re back here again.”

“Montana isn’t that bad. I’ll call you again in a couple of days, I’ll even tell Owen to remind me so I don’t forget again. Love you.”

“Love you too kid, behave yourself.” You were half surprised he didn’t want to check in with Owen himself but at least it saved you both from having to completely lie through your teeth.

“Well, no threats of bodily harm, didn’t ask what we’ve been doing or why I stayed longer. Just a vague slight scolding for not calling him for a week.”

“Feeling guilty yet for withholding information from him?”

“No! He didn’t ask and I had no reason to say anything. Besides, if I told him he’d just spend the rest of the time worrying or wondering where we’re at and how soon we’ll be there. Less hassle for all three of us. Besides, I’m an adult, if I want to take a little trip I shouldn’t have to tell him every single detail. He knows I’m safe and that’s the important thing.”

“Aren’t you being rebellious,” Owen laughed, pulling back on to the road.

“Not like he minds; he’d probably prefer I’m out doing something exciting than sitting at home sifting through papers. We’re both kind of stuck, we know we can’t spend forever like we are but neither one of us really wants to part ways and do something else.”

“It’ll change if it needs to, I don’t think either one of you is willing to let go yet. You’re lucky to have each other.”

“It still blows my mind that you’re an only child, you don’t act like one.”

“No one to worry when I’m not there.”

“Liar, you have me to worry about you now, and Billy to worry about you on my behalf.”

“You aren’t family, and I sure as hell don’t consider you my sister.”

“Gross, I’d hope not. I mean if I thought of you as my brother I’d really need to take my ass to church.” You returned. “Don’t look at me like that! I may be out there but I’m still a young female more than capable of dirty thoughts about attractive men. Come on, tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

“Not until recently, I do have some decency you know. Draw the line at thinking about underage girls.”

“Who isn’t much younger than you are and the first time we saw each other after the ship I was eighteen, legally an adult. Cop out Grady, cop out.”

“So I should’ve been thinking about how to seduce you? With your brother right there, us still really getting to know each other.”

“Not necessarily how, but I was eighteen and it wouldn’t have been indecent to have some thoughts. If we hadn’t already gone over that I’d really wonder how someone like you is single.”

“Best option I don’t see real often as it is, got her own stuff going on.”

“So do you, ask her out anyway she’ll probably get it better than anyone else. Nothing wrong with long distance if you’re both okay with it. Ooh, are you talking about me?”

“And she finally figures it out.”

“Then you already know that I don’t need someone who is there every second of the day expecting me to be able to do the same thing. Not like I mind the distance, we still talk whenever we get the chance. So are you like my boyfriend now or what?”

“Way to take all the romance out of it.”

“Asking someone to be with you doesn’t need to be romantic. Answer the question.”

“If you’re willing to deal with everything I’ve got going on, I’d be more than happy to be.”

“Okay, so we’re together then. I’ll probably tell Billy next time I talk to him, just so he has the chance to regain rational thoughts before we’re there. Or he’ll just fixate on it the entire time…I think I’ll just wait actually. Tell him face to face.” If it were possible you’d probably have put it off even longer, but if Billy found out you’d been keeping it from him he’d be pissed, and hurt. Better to just tell him as soon as you got back.

The last week of the road trip carried on without any incidents. You made sure to call Billy periodically so he knew you were safe and alive and felt only nominally bad for keeping what felt like so much from him. Sure he’d been encouraging you to live your life a little, but you didn’t particularly like keeping things from him even if it had only been a week. Now however, you were back in Montana and sitting at home with Owen waiting for Billy to get back.

“What the hell!?” Billy about jumped out of his skin when he walked in to the kitchen and saw you leaning on the counter.

“Surprise!” You laughed. “We might’ve decided to take a couple of weeks and road trip our way back.”

“Why?! What do you mean we?”

“It was more exciting than just flying back. And we, me and my new boyfriend. Might as well tell you everything at one time.”

“And where the fuck was Owen who was supposed to be keeping an eye on you.”

“Well right now I think he’s asleep, he did the most driving so he’s probably worn out.”

“Why do you have to fuck with me like that? You fucking brat.”

“To make you think the worst first so you wouldn’t freak out so much over the truth. Let you think that I took a road trip with some random guy I met so that when you figured out that while I did take a secret road trip it was actually with Owen, and my boyfriend isn’t just some random guy.”

“So you’re screwing around with Grady.”

“Oh my god don’t even act like that! We didn’t decide to be a thing until like a week ago. Neither one of us have the time for someone that expects us to be able to be around all the time and completely set on all this together time. We already get along great and you can’t even say that you don’t think he’s a great guy. If you didn’t think so you wouldn’t have let me go off alone to hang out with him.”

“You could’ve picked worse I guess.”

“You did say that I should have a bit more of a life, we can call this a compromise. I have a boyfriend like a normal girl, but I don’t have to change my life to make him happy.”

“If you have to change to make someone happy, they shouldn’t be part of your life.”

“Now you sound like Owen.”

“Obviously he’s on to something. Still don’t know how I feel about this. You’re just going to be sitting around here while he’s off doing whatever and maybe you see each other once in a while?”

“Yes, I do my thing he does his. And it’s not like there will be no contact unless we can see each other. I’m sure it seems weird to you but it makes sense to me. Besides, all the guys around here are needy losers.”

“You still aren’t sleeping in the same room.”

“I’m nineteen. Besides, we slept in the same bed the entire time I was out there with him. Save dad mode for when I’m doing something stupid or you’ll put me off of ever having a relationship with someone and you’ll be stuck with a spinster sister.” Possibly untrue, but you knew he wouldn’t want you spending the rest of your life alone because he was too overbearing about it. Either way your mild threat worked and Billy let it drop, aside from the occasional suspicious glances he gave despite the most affection between you and Owen was cuddling on the couch to watch a movie.

“Hear he’s going back soon.”

“Day after tomorrow, they finally sorted out all the kinks and he can go back and play with some dolphins. Even promised me pictures of anything I might think is interesting. If you’re trying to see how horribly devastated I am, I’m not. I already knew he was going to have to go back and I’m just as happy talking to him on the phone. I’ll have plenty to keep me busy anyways.”

“Not going with him?”

“I think that’d defeat the point of dating someone that doesn’t need me around all the time. Besides, it’s not that serious and I’ve got plenty waiting for me here. Can’t get rid of me that easily. That does remind me though, you’re on your own tomorrow, figured that Owen and I would spend the day together, he wants to take me out to dinner again and all that.”

“I would’ve wondered how much you really cared if you planned on spending the day sitting around working or something.”

“I can work when he’s gone, when he is around he deserves my attention. I’m not that oblivious to romantic relationships believe it or not.”

“Alright, well I’m going to bed. Have fun tomorrow, you’ll probably be gone by the time I get up so I’ll see you tomorrow night if I don’t turn in early.” You were surprised the next night to get back and find that he hadn’t decided to wait up until the two of you had come back. Not that you and Owen stayed up much later than the time it took to change for bed, it had been a fairly long day.

“Remember, dolphins can be ass holes and if you run in to a shark touch the front of its head and it’ll probably leave you be. And stay away from”

“I know, you’ve told me more than once,” Owen laughed, cutting you off. “We’re both going to be safe, I’ll call you as frequently as you like. I’ll miss you, you’ll miss me, you went over all this so we didn’t have to go through it today.”

“Yeah but now it’s today and you’re actually leaving, it isn’t just something that’s going happen in however many days. I forgot how much it sucks when you have to leave. And it sucks a lot more when I got used to waking up with you every morning since I came to see you. God I feel like a sappy teenager.”

“I know, you’ll have to make do with the shirt I know you stole.”

“It’s my memento. I have one for you.”

“A shirt?” Owen teased.

“Funny.” Your responded, pulling a cord out of your pocket. “I know we’ll talk and all of that, but I wanted to send you off with something that would maybe remind you of me. I thought about the stop we made before we got here, with one of Alan and Billy’s colleagues when he let us dig around a little bit. So I cleaned up some of what we brought back, found this and thought it’d be perfect.”

“It’s a tooth. You’re going to have to tell me from what, all I can guess is carnivore.”

“Your cop-out. It isn’t one of the bigger ones and it isn’t the whole tooth but it’s from a T-Rex. Thinking back to our first couple of letters I thought it was a nice representation of us.”

“One of these days I’ll come up with a better favorite, but I will never forget you scolding me for being so typical. I don’t need something to remind me of you, trust me I think of you plenty. You did go through the very thoughtful effort of making me something, and who the hell else can say their girl made them a necklace out of an actual dinosaur tooth.”

“Probably no one,” You laughed, reaching up to tie it around his neck “They go for those fake store bought shark teeth with fake shells around them that are in no way related to where that shark would have actually come from.” You continued, frowning when you heard the call for his flight. You were taken a bit by surprised when he leaned down and kissed you.

“None of that, we’ll talk soon and you’ll be so busy you won’t have time to miss me.”

“Oh sure, wait until you’re leaving to tease me with a kiss.”

“It put a smile back on your face, part of one at least.”

“Hey, a girl is allowed to get a little giddy over her first kiss. God I really need to let you go before I make you miss your flight and get you in trouble.”

“I feel like a sappy teenager too,” He responded softly, wrapping his arms around you.

“One more kiss, then you really need to go or I’ll be tempted to kidnap you.” You responded after the second call for his flight.

“I’d be tempted to let you,” He laughed, dipping head back down. You felt the kiss was justifiably long, part because you’d miss him and part because he’d caught you by surprise with the first one and now you could properly reciprocate.

“Be safe, I already miss you. Don’t ever tell my brother I got that emotional.”

“Give him hell for me. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can, let you know I had a safe flight.”

“Bye Owen.”

“Bye baby, talk to you soon,” He responded, leaving you with a quick kiss before he left. You hadn’t expected it to be this hard when the two of you had to part way again, but then again it wasn’t the same situation as before. The two of you had just been friends the first time, the first time you’d seen each other in person since the ship, separate sleeping quarters and a lot of friendly bonding. This time it had been just the two of you until you’d gotten back to Montana. From the first night after you flew out to see him the two of you shared the same space, shared the same bed. You were always together with no middle person to consider. It wasn’t unreasonable after getting to know each other and being so close that romantic feelings popped up. He was a great guy, he always seemed genuinely interested in what you were saying and even after the two of you got together he was nothing if not the perfect gentleman. He hadn’t tried more than a kiss on your cheek or forehead the entire time, even in bed his hands were always kept in an appropriate place. This time together had also been quite a bit longer than before, but this was what the two of you had agreed would work for you. Being with someone that was okay with the other not being around all the time, with them having their own life and their own things to do.

You were slow to make your way back out to the parking lot where Billy was waiting, he’d insisted on driving but once you got there he stayed in the vehicle without a word. He could be overprotective, but he still understood that this was your first relationship and it was new to you to try and cope with however this was going to work out and having to Owen go back to his Navy job. It was better to let the two of you do it alone without him looming in the background. Not wanting to spoil your first relationship was about the only reason he had given as much leeway with Owen as he had. You were clearly attached and it made you happy to be around him and Billy couldn’t bring himself to insist on separate rooms and infringing on your privacy and personal space.

“Well, I didn’t start crying in front of him and begging him to say,” You stated as you got in the car.

“You aren’t the begging type; eyes are looking a bit watery though.” Bill replied, starting up the car to head back home. “So right after I started school I met this girl. Beautiful, pretty smart, sense of humor, little bit older than me. We dated for about a year when she got this great opportunity, thing was she had to go to South America for it. I was hurt at first, that she’d all but agreed to go before she even said anything to me, but I knew what it meant to her and knew I’d probably hate myself if I was the reason she didn’t go for it. Before she left we made all these promises to each other that neither of us really meant, for a while she called whenever she was somewhere with a phone.”

“You’ve never mentioned her.”

“We broke up. She came back at one point, with the group she’d been with and it wasn’t the same with us anymore. There was this guy in her group and the way he looked at her. I trusted her, knew she wasn’t screwing around with him. Also knew that I was holding her back from something that would make her happy. Told her that I thought it was time that we ended things, she agreed.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better because it isn’t.”

“I’m getting there. I gave her up because there was someone else that looked at her a way I knew I never did. The way he looked at her is the way you and Owen look at each other.”

“So did they have a happy ending or did they break up too?”

“They dated a while, don’t remember how long. I still talk to them both occasionally, they got married not too long after you got here. Almost six years later and they’re still married, off trekking the Amazon together or something like that. A lot of people can’t make distance work can’t commit themselves to someone they don’t see very often, start seeing other things that they can have immediately and it falls apart. What makes it work is how you really feel about that person before you’re apart. Maybe you and Owen date a while and break up, maybe you end up together for good, but the way you look at each other, you can make this work.”

“Your love life has terrible luck,” You laughed.

“Haven’t found anyone to make me want to commit, women don’t like a guy that won’t get serious.”

“Their loss, you’d be a great catch. You’ll find someone that doesn’t mind it, you can care about someone without making a huge commitment like getting married or wants a somewhat casual long term relationship. I mean come on, you’re smart, you’re funny, you’re one of the most caring people I’ve ever met. And you know what, I owe anything that happens with Owen to you, if you hadn’t met him on the island and got him to promise he’d make sure I was safe, we never would’ve met. I’d still be reclusive, studying all the time and going back and forth about what I want to really go for. Or maybe it would’ve been different if you hadn’t let him come visit the first time, or if I hadn’t gone to see him. You’re the reason I am where I am, and I am who I am. You’ve practically raised me and now I’m growing up and dating and acting like an adult and I’m sure it’s weird for you to see me like that and not just your baby sister, but it means a lot to me that you’ve tried to step back and give me space and freedom even if you’re wary of it. And as much as I joke and tease you, today was the first time we actually kissed on the lips. The only thing we’d done before that was cuddling and cheek kisses. There’s been no funny business.”

“You’re an adult, there will be eventually and that’ll be your business. Just be safe and if you aren’t sure don’t do it. He ever hurts you and you can forget about me staying out of it. You were going to grow up eventually, I was sure you’d want to go off to college and be independent but here you are. I could give you up for someone that’ll take care of you like you deserve, and know enough to know that you can take care of yourself just fine without him.”

“You don’t have to give me up, it isn’t like I’ve got a boyfriend so I’m going to just disappear on you. I only have that boyfriend because he doesn’t mind that I have my own life, which happens to be here. Otherwise I really wouldn’t have bothered.”

“You never know, things go well the two of you might decide to get married one day, move away somewhere and have your own lives. It isn’t going to work forever, the two of you just casually accepting the distance, eventually either it’ll have to change or it won’t last.”

“Wow, way to go to one extreme or the other. How about neither right now, we just started dating. Jeez.”

“I’m just saying Y/N. You might want to keep in mind at some point one of you will have to make a choice.” Neither of you said much after that, you were sure he only brought it up because you were both friends with Owen first, but still. You really had just started the relationship and you didn’t want to look far enough in to the future to consider the point that one or both of you had to make the decision to change your life for the other one. That was the counter-point of why the two of you started dating wasn’t it?”


	4. Chapter 4

Time passed as you expected it to, you continued with your course work, talked to Owen when you could and spent your free time with Billy at digs or doing more course work. It wasn’t the most exciting, but you were ahead of schedule to finish your degree…double degrees. Okay so you were in exactly the sort of situation you didn’t blame people for thinking you had a made-up boyfriend. That lasted about as long as it took for Owen to be able to visit again and you got to show off your very real, awesome Navy boyfriend. Because you absolutely didn’t care what people thought? You did get annoyed with them though, what a waste of effort it would’ve been to make up a boyfriend. Now most of them just seemed to be way jealous, they should be. Billy on the other hand, and to your surprised, seemed to make himself scarce whenever Owen came to visit.

“You don’t think that’s weird? I mean remember the first time I came to see you?!”

“We had a talk about it ages ago, the whole I’m an adult and I deserve my space thing. Plus, he doesn’t want to accidentally see anything one’s older brother wouldn’t want to see. And I yelled at him last time for making faces when we were kissing goodbye. I mean it has been a couple years.” A couple years of scarce visits, phone calls and sending each other gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries. A couple years of giving Billy warning looks when he watched you after a phone call or a visit and saw the look on your face showing how much you started missing Owen as time went on.

“Speaking of which, I know I sent you something but I have something else for you that I didn’t want to send in the mail.”

“So do I,” You laughed “It wasn’t really mail friendly. Something might’ve gotten broken or lost.”

“I would have been very unhappy,” Owen returned, fishing a box out of his pocket and handing it to you.

“Is this made of bone?” You questioned, removing the very pretty yet earthy ring from the box. First response to a boy giving you a ring, hey this looks like bone.

“I don’t know authenticity like I’m sure you do, but it was supposed to have been from a mosasaur tooth. Don’t hold me to it, but it’s supposed to be.”

“Ah! See this is why I love you. You know me so well.” You exclaimed, shoving the box in your bag and putting the ring on. “My present for you isn’t this awesome I’m afraid.” Kind of hard to compete with the super personal prehistoric sea creature fossil ring. Which you were absolutely in love with.

“I’ll take a kiss,” Owen teased, knowing you’d have given him one anyway.

“That’s worth way more than just a kiss Owen,” You responded, stopping to face him anyway. “I love you,” You added softly before kissing him.

“Love you too baby,” Owen returned when you pulled away. “We should start heading back before it gets too late.” Probably true, walks in the wilderness are best ended before nightfall. The walk back was spent in comfortable silence, reaching home to find that Billy already had dinner in the microwave and left a note saying he had plans for the night. “See!”

“He’s got a few boxes of fossils to go through, it isn’t because of us. He’ll probably be working through the night. The project has been getting a bit behind, he’s supposed to let me know if he needs help. It has nothing to do with you being here!” Now if Billy knew what your ‘present’ for Owen was he’d have definitely come up with a reason to go out. After finishing dinner, doing the dishes and watching the end of the movie the two of you had started the night before you decided now was as good a time as any. “Come on, I have something I want to give you,” You commented before heading to your room.

“Sure you didn’t tell him to leave?” Owen joked when you locked the door behind him.

“You got me, I told him to leave because I had plans to ravish you tonight.”

“You’re terrible,” Owen laughed. 

“I’m only half lying about that,” You said before kissing him. You could hear him groan as you backed away from him. “C’mon,” You started, backing towards your bed. “I think two years was long enough to hold out on you. I mean I wanted to last time you were here but there wasn’t really a chance. And now you’re looking at me weird and I feel like I look stupid and we totally don’t have to…”

“You don’t look stupid, I just want you to be sure and you aren’t just offering because you feel like you should.”

“I’ve wanted to have sex with you for more than a year, we just haven’t had a good opportunity. But tonight, we’re alone, it’s been a great day and I don’t want to miss my chance again. I’ve thought it all out, I’m on birth control, I trust that you’re all good on your end, please stop me before I ruin the mood being clinical about it. I just want us to have sex already.”

“I don’t know, it’s kinda hot.” Owen returned, moving towards you until he pressed you back against the bed.

“Oh shut up,” You muttered, grabbing the back of his neck and kissing him. You were already excited; you could feel your nipples stiffen inside your bra as he brought a hand down your side. Hell, you’d made out plenty of times but it was the anticipation of consummating the relationship that was driving you at the moment. You let out a moan when his hand slid inside the waistband of your jeans and you reached down to undo them.

“Ah ah, slow down,” Owen warned softly in your ear, pushing your hands away before kissing your neck. You weren’t sure what you were supposed to be doing as you felt him pop open the button and the pressure of his hand slid down the zipper. The brush of his hand against your sex made your toes curl and your body tense. “Yes?” He questioned when he heard you make a slight noise. You took a deep breath before opening your mouth to speak.

“Use your mouth,” You muttered

“Speak up baby, I didn’t quite hear you.” Liar, he heard you just fine.

“Use your mouth!” You responded “I want you to use your mouth. On my…you know where.”

“Oh I will,” He laughed, having you sit part of the way up so he could pull off your shirt, which was joined shortly on the floor by your bra. “I just have elsewhere in mind first,” He responded, moving his hand against you as he moved his mouth to one of your breasts. You arched against him, simultaneously grinding your pelvis against his hand. You still didn’t know what to do with your hands aside from grasping at the blankets beneath you. Your mouth was doing a fine job on its own, as was Owen’s for that matter, switching breasts as if the other felt neglected.

As if sensing your impending request, Owen moved to tug your jeans down past your bare feet. He took a moment to look at you, giving you an opportunity to back out if you so desired, before your underwear joined your other discarded clothing and his mouth pressed against your growingly wet heat. His fingers pressed gently in to you, working to relax the unused muscles of your inner walls.

“God that feels so fucking good,” You moaned, almost grinding against his mouth, giggling a little when he grabbed your thighs to hold your hips in place. He nipped at your bud before raising his head to stare at you, again with the offer to cut things off. “Take off your clothes already,” you ordered softly, grinning when he pulled off his shirt. He started back towards your lips as he was kicking off his pants before resting the full length of his gloriously nude body against you. “I’m ready, I want this, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have taken it this far. I am all yours,” You assured softly.

“I know. I love you,” He returned, slowly pressing the length of his member in to you, easing back to allow you to adjust. His lips pressed against yours, muffling the soft groan you let out as he entered you completely.

“I love you too,” You rasped between kisses, gasping when he started moving in you. The pressure felt amazing, your body tight around him but the slickness of your walls letting him take you with ease, each thrust slow and deep. Your legs wrapped around his back, pulling him further in to you as you groaned at the change. Owen’s hand slid between the two of you, moving to the bundle of nerves he’d only teased previously. The increased friction had you crying out as your walls tightened around him. It hit you unexpectedly and all at once every nerve in your body felt like it was going off. As you cried out you could hear Owen groan, faintly noticing his own release in to you as you were lost in your own. “God I love you,” You said breathlessly when you finally found words again. “That was so good.” He was still pressing kisses to your lips when he withdrew from you, wrapping his arms around you to roll you over on top of him.

“You keep making it harder to have to leave you, you know that.” Owen muttered, lying his head back.

“Good,” You joked, leaning down to kiss him. “My plan to keep you forever is working.”

“You’ll have me for as long as you want me baby, you should know that.”

“I know, and I hope you know I was joking, I don’t mean to make it hard for you to leave.” You returned, yawning slightly.

“I know,” He returned, pulling the covers over you both. “Sleep beautiful.” You didn’t try to argue that you weren’t tired, between the trek earlier and your ‘gift’ you had no trouble at all falling asleep. Getting up the next morning was a different story. When you did actually wake up the last thing you wanted to do what move away from Owen and get out of bed. You wanted to stay there wrapped in his arms and never move but you knew that wasn’t possible. Still, you could stay that way a while longer before biology or anything else forced you from his embrace. It was really starting to suck having to inevitably part ways. As much as you were loathe to do so, you forced yourself up when you felt yourself getting emotional and retreated to the bathroom.

You didn’t like getting emotional around Owen, you knew it couldn’t be any easier for him to have to be gone for months at a time and it wasn’t fair to add your own distress to his. Then again that couldn’t always be helped.

“You would wake up the second I leave.”

“You were gone a while, everything okay?” You tried to ignore his question and just curl back up with him but that just seemed to reaffirm Owen’s idea that something was up. “Y/N?”

“Everything is fine, I had to go to the bathroom.”

“Y/N.” Last warning before he started really badgering you.

“You know I hate when you push, it doesn’t make either one of us feel any better.” You sighed. “I was just thinking that you’re going to have to leave again soon and I was already thinking about how I didn’t want to have to move and it just made me a little emotional okay. It’s fine. Please don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“Was that really so hard to say?” Owen sighed. You knew it wasn’t something he was thrilled to hear any more than you’d been thrilled to say it. You both understood that the longer this went on the worse it was getting for both of you. Neither of you were in a place to change that, he had the program and you were in school. As tempting as it had been getting you couldn’t just up and run off to be with Owen, not right now.

“Yes, because I know it isn’t any easier for you to have to leave than it is for me to watch you go and I hate bringing it up.”

“Pretending it isn’t bothering us doesn’t help anything either.” Any argument was halted when the two of you heard the front door. “Look, I know it isn’t easy, on either of us, but I don’t want this to turn in to a fight. So why don’t we get cleaned up and dressed before your brother figures out what’s keeping us all morning hmm?”

“Fine, but I expect you in the shower with me to make up for bugging me about it.”

“I can agree to those terms.” Thankfully your bedroom had an attached bathroom so the two of you didn’t need to worry about sneaking past Billy for said shower.

You spent that afternoon much like you did at least once every time that Owen came to visit, out adventuring as a threesome. You liked that the three of you had started out as friends and wanted to keep that friendship alive even if the current dynamic sometimes left Billy as the third wheel. It was why you made a point of these outings whenever Owen could come out. It worked out well, you and Owen did your best to keep the couple vibes to a minimum so as to keep your brother from feeling like a third wheel. Billy, from his end, knew better than to try to deny your plans for the trip out. He’d seemed impressed by the ring when he saw you wearing it but not surprised, telling you Owen had obviously mentioned it to him before giving it to you, something that didn’t actually surprise you either.

You considered calling Owen out on it but in the end decided not to. The ring itself was a sweet gesture you didn’t want to ruin and it meant the world to you that Owen understood and took in to consideration how close you were with your brother. You’d begun to realize lately that one day it might come down to choosing one of the men in your life; the one who’d raised you and been there for you since you were just entering your teens, or the man you were madly in love with and could have a serious future with. You were confident neither would make you choose cutting the other out of your life, something which would’ve resulted in them being the one cut out. You were lucky both of them knew that and wouldn’t ever put you in that sort of position. 

Regardless of the looming threat of a serious life decision regarding your relationships, you were steadfast in the decision to finish school before you decided anything else. You were so close to finished you couldn’t stand the thought of giving up now, for anything. All of it was thoughts best saved for a time you weren’t likely to get so distracted and have the boys wondering what was up. Before you knew it, it would be time for Owen to leave again and you’d have plenty of time to dwell on the fact that he wasn’t there and all the things you wished you would’ve said or done while he was.

No. Today was for the goofy pictures you’d cherish and making memories with the two people in the world that meant more to you than anyone else. It was for setting your camera up rather precariously on a tree to get that perfect picture of the three of you, one you were sure to print and frame. It was a time for laughing at your brother’s stupid jokes and listening to Owen’s Navy stories, some of which you’d already heard. You had fun, you enjoyed dinner and drinks with the boys but you couldn’t shake that heavy feeling in your heart that reminded you how soon Owen would be gone again. You simply did your best to keep them from noticing how you were really feeling so you didn’t wreck the whole day. If they noticed anything was off they didn’t bring it up.

You were secretly relieved when the three of you returned home for the night. No more need to pretend, just a little bit of lighthearted recapping of the day before the three of you went to bed. Once again if Owen had noticed anything he didn’t bring it up, you simply got a kiss goodnight before the two of you curled up together and went to bed. You slipped out of bed when you work to quietly head to the bathroom and with no little breakdown Owen was still asleep when you slid back in to bed and curled back up against him. You enjoyed the quiet time with him even if he was asleep, it was a chance to just enjoy being around him with nothing else going on.

When the two of you had first gotten together you’d been busy with the road trip back to Montana, worried about telling your brother and everything else. When you thought about it there really hadn’t been many times that you’d had with Owen when you could just enjoy being around him with no outside whatever. A smile graced your face when you remembered the first time Owen went back to work after you got together, giving him the piece of T-Rex tooth. He still wore it from time to time, just like you still wore the shirt you’d stolen from him.

Things were different than they were then, which made sense because it had been a couple of years. You didn’t look at the relationship anymore and scoff at the idea of it ever changing like you once had. You’d realized that one day it would and you’d also decided that unless something drastically changed with Owen’s career, you were going to be the one to relocate and change things. Owen had a great thing going and you just had school which was nearly over. Once it was you’d only have to worry about finding a job and you could do that near Owen. You knew it was starting to reach a point where you weren’t going to be able to take much more of Owen barely being able to be around.

Time seemed to pass more quickly after that and before you knew it, it was the day before Owen was set to leave. Like always you and Owen made plans to spend the day together. You woke him up with your hand down his pants, which escalated to your mouth being wrapped around him as soon as he was properly awake. He humored your inexperience with gentle directions and a quiet warning when he was close. It was to your surprise afterwards when Owen flipped you on to your back and flung your underwear across the room before reciprocating quite enthusiastically. You could’ve stayed in bed with him all day like that, just reveling in each other. Eventually you did both decide to keep with your plans and go out, after a shower at least. When you got home that night the two of you made love again before falling in to uneasy sleep.

It was never easy parting from Owen but you always made yourself go with him to the airport if only for that little bit of extra time with him. You didn’t have the slightest idea when you’d be able to see him again, the only thing you knew for sure was that you’d have the phone calls like you always had. It was better than nothing but it wasn’t much of a comfort anymore. Maybe it was because you’d finally made things more physical with Owen but you were that much more impatient now to reach a point where you didn’t have to rely on phone calls to keep your relationship alive. You just wanted to be done with school so there was one less thing in the way of the two of you being together. Your chaotic emotions were made worse by the fact that you’d slept poorly and really didn’t want to be here right now. You were shaken from your thoughts by Owen wrapping his arms around you.

“Believe me baby, I know how much this sucks,” He sighed as you leaned in to him. He hated this as much as you did, if not more. He hated having to leave you upset and not be able to do anything about it. Neither one of you had necessarily seen things lasting like they had or anticipated just how hard it would be to keep saying goodbye for unknown amounts of time.

“We both thought we were so smart when we got together, both had our own lives and things to keep us occupied and then we had to go and complicate it with love and feelings and I hate this.” You almost liked it better the first time he left after you got together and it didn’t seem so serious to not see him for a while. But there were so many parts of the relationship you had with Owen now that you’d have missed having.

“It won’t be like this forever,” Owen tried to reassure.

“I know it won’t. I’ve already decided that once I’m done with school I’m coming to you instead of this visiting crap.” Might as well admit it to him now.

“Y/N,” He started

“Don’t. Look you’ve got a great thing going with your whole Navy career and the only thing stopping me from coming with you now is that I’m so close to finishing school it’d be a waste not to. I can’t take too many more years of this Owen, I just can’t okay?”

“So those are the options? You give up your life here or we’re done?”

“You don’t need to make it seem so dramatic. We knew it would come to this eventually anyways and I’ll need to get a job once I finish school. I can do that near you, you can’t do what you do near me. I’m just saving a step by telling you now instead of waiting. I know I could get by just having visits with my brother but it’s not cutting it with us anymore Owen. I don’t want to lose you for the sake of staying in my comfort zone the rest of my life.”

“You don’t have to worry about losing me. I would’ve figured something else out before it came to that.” What, he didn’t know but he was sure he’d have come up with something if it meant keeping you in his life. He wouldn’t have just given up on you.

“Well either way, now you know the solution to our separation problem. We just have to suck it up a little while longer.” God, that fucking announcement already. “Just a bit longer,” You sighed, trying to blink back the tears stinging at your eyes.

“I love you. Stay out of trouble,” Owen requested softly, wiping the tears away from your eyes.

“I love you too, don’t get eaten by anything.” Likeliness of that happening was slim but it was the best you had at the moment. You were loathe to let go of him but it was time for Owen to leave and with one last kiss he left. You did your best to keep your composure but by the time you reached the car you were in tears again and glad you brought along Billy because you weren’t sure you’d be able to drive back. “Please don’t,” You begged, afraid he’d have something to say about how things were turning out.

“Come here,” He responded softly, wrapping you in a hug and just letting you cry. He didn’t like that someone had reduced his sister to tears, especially not her boyfriend but you didn’t need a critique right now you needed support. Either this relationship would work or it wouldn’t but that was for you to decide whether he liked it or not.

“Thank you,” You whispered when you finally calmed down. “It won’t always be like this you know.”

“I really hope not,” Billy returned

“It won’t,” You assured, not quite ready to talk to your brother about the plans you had with Owen.


	5. Chapter 5

You were dreading having to tell Billy about your plans with Owen, or for Owen, or whatever way it should’ve been worded. You could tell your brother was getting more upset by how much more upset you were getting every time Owen left, but would news that you were planning to leave to be with Owen be any better? It brought you back to the conversation you’d had with Billy the first time Owen had left after the two of you started dating and you realized how right he’d been. You had finally reached the point where one of you had to change your life for the other, and the point that you were going to leave your brother to be with a guy that hopefully Billy felt was one that was going to take care of you and he’d be okay with it.

Billy on the other hand had been bracing himself for the moment you made the decision to leave, and he knew it would be you that went to Owen and not the other way around. You cared about people too much to ask Owen to give up his career to come live in Montana or wherever else. No, Billy knew you’d give up your lackluster life here for the potential of a future with Owen, and he hoped you knew that even if it didn’t pan out you’d always be welcome back home. You’d been with him since you were fourteen, no matter what he’d always welcome you home with open arms and maybe just a few questions. He didn’t get the feeling that things with Owen weren’t going to pan out, sure it was your first relationship but the two of you clearly cared a great deal about each other. Billy had approved of the fact that the two of you had taken a decent amount of time getting to know each other before you’d even started dating. He’d also been aware of the ring Owen gave you well before it had been given, promise ring or not Owen had been considerate of Billy’s relationship with you and discussed it with him. The relationship had promise and Billy wasn’t blind to that fact.

You of course didn’t realize anything that had been going on in your brother’s head since Owen’s last departure. You had no idea that Owen talked to him about giving you the ring or that Billy was just waiting for the moment you finally left home. You did however know that he’d never let it go if you didn’t finish school first so you set all your focus on that. You still weren’t sure what you were going to do with degrees in herpetology and paleontology but that’s what you’d chosen and you were nothing else if not passionate about both. And your minor in marine biology as a little shout out to Owen. It had been a massive undertaking but you were nearly there and even if Billy wouldn’t kill you, you wouldn’t even consider not finishing. Being that you only needed to finish these last few courses to be done, it was time to have that conversation with your brother.

“Steak for dinner?” You heard your brother call as you sat in the living room working on a few assignments from your laptop.

“Sounds good,” You called back. “Hey you have a minute though? I wanted to run something by you.”

“Hmm, between the nothing we’ve got planned right now and the nothing we have planned after dinner, I might be able to fit you in.”

“Hey, you never know what you might’ve planned without me,” You pointed out.

“Nothing tonight. So what’s up?” Billy asked, sitting in a chair across from you. You set your laptop aside and mentally braced yourself.

“I was thinking about what I’m going to do when I’ve finished up my degrees.”

“Well out with it, I’m a big boy Y/N, I can handle it.”

“You say that now,” You said with a sigh. “When I’ve got everything settled I’m going to go live with Owen and find a job out there.”

“Kind of figured you would eventually.” Billy relented “I told you years ago it would come to this.”

“No, you said we’d get married, move away from you and that’s not how we’re doing it.”

“So you changed the order. You still hit the point where you decided to change your life for him. I knew you would after the last time he left.” He responded, noticing the exasperated look on your face. “I’m not going to freak out on you Y/N. You’re a big girl now making your big girl decisions. Visit me, live with him. You’re going to be happier that way.”

“I just didn’t think you’d be so relaxed about it.”

“I’ve had a while to consider what you’d end up doing. I figured it’d only be a matter of time once he gave you the ring that you’d be ready to commit.”

“You knew about the ring?”

“He asked me about it, I warned him about what happens if he hurts you.”

“Of course you did,” You sighed

“You’re still my baby sister, anyone hurts you they have to deal with me. And you know you’re always welcome back here if you need a break or things don’t work out.”

“Well hopefully things go well and I don’t need to come back here for either of those reasons. But you’re right and I did realize that this time. Owen thought I was trying to say I was dumping him if he didn’t agree that I come be with him but I think I got my point across well enough.”

“He worries about you when he’s not around.” It was easy to forget sometimes that Owen and Billy were good friends. Of course they spoke. “He just doesn’t want you doing something because you think it’ll make him happy.”

“I know, he pretty much told me that. And I pretty much told him I can’t stand him leaving me stuck here anymore and that I wasn’t losing him so I could stay comfortable. He insisted that wouldn’t happen but like you said, I’m a big girl and it’s time to make big girl decisions.” You were grateful to have the kind of relationship with your brother that you could have these conversations. “Nothing personal but I can live without seeing you every minute of every day.”

“About damn time you decided that, I’ve been pushing for years.” Billy laughed.

“I know you have” You laughed back. “Even if moving out to go live with my boyfriend isn’t what you had in mind.”

“Better than you being alone,” He admitted, thinking back to Isla Sorna. Sure at the end of the day you’d both made it out alive but he nearly hadn’t and then what would you have done? Now at least if something happened you had Owen and he knew that was regardless. He’d had that discussion with Owen too, if anything happened to Billy, take care of Y/N. Neither one of them were ever going to tell you that. Billy trusted that much from Owen, if nothing else because of how long the three of you had been friends. If push came to shove you’d have someone there for you.

“Please, I’ve got you, Alan, Ellie, Owen. I haven’t been alone since you took me in and with our little unit I never will be.” Billy and Owen were your best bets but still. Ellie had been looking out for the two of you and keeping in good contact since Isla Sorna and Alan had always kept a protective eye over you. Probably because he hoped you and Billy would take over for him when he got too old but mostly because he cared.

“You need more people your own age, you really do.”

“If I count people my own age I’m at zero, Owen’s older than me too, just not as much as you are.”

“Smart ass, you know what I mean.”

“Go make dinner already, I’m starving,” You laughed back, returning the abandoned laptop to your lap and going back to work. You stayed like that until Billy called you for dinner and the two of you went back to teasing each other as you ate.

Owen’s night wasn’t going quite as well as the Brennan siblings. Even though he’d initially argued with you about you coming to stay with him when you were done with school, he found himself wishing you’d be done already and hoping you meant what you said. He’d always been envious that you had Billy to keep you company whereas he had himself. His other company was dolphins and coworkers that he barely saw outside of work at his own choice. He missed you terribly and spending nights alone in his bed, the ceiling decorated with photos of the three of you, just made him miss you more but he couldn’t bare to take them down. Tonight was another night of takeout and wishing he was back in Montana planning some insane adventure with the two of you. Or just you and him together. There was so much he wanted to admit to you but he knew how you tried to avoid deep conversations and there were some pretty deep things he’d never gotten to say to you, outside of telling you that he loved you. And god did he love you. You might not have expected things to progress the way they did in the few years you’d been together but it was what Owen had hoped for. Sure he liked his privacy but he wanted someone to share in life with, someone with a real passion for it, someone like you. He knew it was probably a bad idea but he found himself picking up the phone to dial your number.

“You’re a glutton for punishment aren’t you.” Came the voice on the end of the line. Billy. He wasn’t wrong, Owen and you both had been avoiding too much contact for the obvious reason but he wanted to hear your voice tonight.

“Yeah I know,” Owen responded “Just put her on if she’s still up.”

“She’s still up, she’s been working on course work like a mad woman all day.” Billy responded before Owen heard the receiver being set down. Billy thought this less contact method was stupid but it wasn’t his relationship so he’d get you and put you on the phone to talk to Owen who was clearly missing you more than usual.

“Hey you,” You answered, knowing only one person would be calling you at this time of night. He was a welcome break from the monotony of dissertations and theses.

“Hey baby,” Came the expected response. “Hope I’m not keeping you from anything.”

“You know you’re worth it. Besides I was just finishing up school stuff and deciding if I wanted to sleep or do something else for a bit.” Your latest endeavor was completing every Pokémon game instead of reading books you’d read already. “What’s up with you?”

“Honestly, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Rough day?” You asked. Owen wasn’t usually the type to just call you for the sake hearing you speak.

“Rough week, rough month, take your pick.”

“You didn’t have to wait until you’re miserable to call,” You sighed “Don’t even try to deny it I can hear it in your voice.”

“I was trying not to call at all.”

“I know that’s what we were going for but there’s no reason for either of us to be miserable for the sake of not calling.”

“Well I’m calling now aren’t I?”

“You are, which makes me think something is going on that you aren’t saying. So spill it Owen Grady.”

“You’re just going to change the subject,” He warned. 

“I won’t, you obviously need to talk about it.” Deep subjects, your weakness. But it was obviously bothering Owen badly enough he’d broken the no contact pact the two of you had made.

“You know I love you right?”

“Please don’t give me a panic attack Owen.”

“It’s not something bad.”

“Just. Get on with it, before you give me a panic attack which I have been very good at avoiding.”

“Look, it’s just every time I try to broach something serious with you, you change the subject and I love you to death but it drives me out of my mind.”

“I told you I won’t this time Owen, so whatever you need to say just say it because I don’t like that something is bothering you this much. Either that or you’re just going to worry me sick.” Owen wasn’t even sure where to start even if he did actually trust that you’d do your best this time to not try and change subjects on him. You on the other hand were getting more and more anxious, trying to calm yourself by twisting the ring you kept on your right ring finger.

“I wish I knew where to start,” He sighed. “You know you are absolutely the most amazing woman I have ever met, and I’m pretty sure the most amazing woman that I ever will meet at that. And I know that you know it drives me nuts being away from you for so long and it kills me every time I have to leave you behind. To have to see the look on your face. Y/N, you mean everything to me and I know you never meant for things to turn out like this but I’m glad they did. I’m glad you were out of your mind enough to want to be with me and stick by me no matter how many times I have to come back here. And I hoped it would be like this because I wanted someone to share my life with and I can’t imagine it being anyone but you. And I swear to you, you aren’t making a mistake giving up your life there to be with me. We can make this work, we will make this work because right now I can’t even consider where I’d be if I didn’t have you.”

“Now you made me cry you jerk,” You choked out. Not full on sobbing or anything but the tears were definitely flowing. “And that’s a stupid thing to hold back on saying even if I’m a pain about serious stuff. Do you have any idea how nervous it’s been making me that I’m going to finish school, come out to you and you’re just going to hate having me around all the time bugging you?!”

“Now that’s just ridiculous.”

“It is not, we never discuss these things which I realize right now is mostly my fault but still.” You responded.

“We’re discussing it now. Or I’m telling it. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t care if that includes one kid, two kids or ten kids or just us, I just want to spend my life with you.”

“I’m not having ten kids. I will tell you that right now. I get your point but I’m not having ten kids. Which is something that maybe we should’ve had before we had sex because nothing is perfect. But uhm yeah. Not ten, but in some years down the line I would be willing to give you some.”

“I didn’t mean have them right now either,” Owen laughed. “At risk of sounding like Billy, you should live a little first before you lock it down with kids.”

“We lock it down. You make confessions like that Owen Grady and you are stuck with me now. No matter what.”

“You better mean that because I plan on holding you to it.”

“I mean it more than you realize Owen. And at the risk of sounding very much unlike myself. I’m glad you ended up being the one to break me out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t stay there forever and I couldn’t ask for a better friend or lover to leave it with. Just promise me that if for whatever reason this doesn’t work out, us together, that we’ll always stay best friends.”

“I can promise that and I do. No matter what happens I will always be there for you no matter what.”

“And I promise the same. Even if we break up I expect that if you ever need anything I’m the first person you call you got that?”

“Yes ma’am,” Owen said seriously, silently laughing to himself. He wasn’t worried about the two of you breaking up, it wasn’t happening unless you were the one that broke things off. As far as he was concerned one day, he was going to marry you, and give you kids as had pretty much just been decided. That was still a way off. Let you get settled in, start your own career and then see where to go from there. “Alright baby, I’m gonna let you go so you can get some sleep and God willing it won’t be too long before we see each other again.”

“All I need to do is get everything approved and we’re in the clear,” You offered. “I love you.”

“Love you too baby.” He said, sighing as he hung up the phone. It did renew his mood talking to you, especially hearing that you just needed your papers approved before you were done with school. Of course they’d be approved in no time, you’d yet to do anything but excel in your work.

You on the other hand were trying to make it less obvious Owen made you cry before you walked in to the other room, even if Billy was probably expecting you to be a huge mess after the phone call. You were just as excited as Owen that all you needed was final approval.

“Thought you guys were trying a no contact method until you’re done?” Billy asked when you finally emerged.

“He just really needed to talk to me about some stuff, and I guess I needed to as well.”

“Everything going okay?” He asked cautiously

“Yeah, I mean Owen wants to spend the rest of his life with me and we’ve basically decided we’re going to have kids at some point so it’s going okay. Aside from the jerk thinking that just because I always change the subject at serious stuff meant that he had to keep it all in until he made us both emotional about it.”

“Wait a second. Did he propose?!”

“It wasn’t that kind of I want to spend the rest of my life with you conversation Billy. Relax.”

“Just making sure, because I don’t recall him mentioning anything along those lines.”

“Look dad,” You teased

“Hey, just saying it he can bring up a promise ring he better bring up marrying you beforehand. No eloping!”

“Do I need to tell you that the kids conversation was set for years in the future? Because I feel like I do.”

“Good. You need to live a little first.” You could hit him.

“You and fucking Owen always saying the same shit to me.” Billy laughed at that, of course he did. He found it hilarious any time he and Owen told you the same thing.

“Knew there was a reason I liked him.”

“I’m going to bed, you males are infuriating.” You said, stomping off to your room for the evening.

It took you the rest of the month to put the finishing touches on your work. Once, or if, it was approved you’d have two doctoral degrees under your belt. More importantly, you’d be on your way to Owen. Even though you kept saying it was preemptive, you had started packing the more important things you planned on taking with you. Your camera, your laptop, clothing essentials. Most things you planned to leave with Billy like your fossil collections, physical copies of photographs as you had everything backed up in probably at least three places. You were ready far sooner than you needed to be considering the minimum amount of time it usually took for them to review a thesis was four weeks.

Given that you’d submitted two, you weren’t surprised it took six weeks for results to get back to you for both, especially considering you probably went a little overboard in length. Six weeks of agonizing over whether you’d done sufficient work of a sufficient quality. Six weeks plus the three prior to that since you’d spoken to Owen. It had driven you nearly mad but in the end you were successful. You were now Doctor Brennan. Joining your brother and Alan and Ellie in the elite status, each of you with your different specialties but each accomplished in your own rights. Your first day at a dig site after the news you outright refused to answer to anything but that, unless you already let them call you by your first name all the time. Ellie and Alan helped Billy throw you a little party, a joint graduation and going away party. You appreciated the party and you enjoyed food and drinks with the gang but you were equally eager to go home and call Owen. Not so eager that you cut out early on the party, you had wanted to catch up with Ellie, who had come out from D.C and see the pictures of how much her son and daughter had grown since you last saw them. Charlie was sure to be a little heart breaker when he was old enough and her daughter was just the sweetest. However, being that Ellie was coming in from out of state she was the first to depart when it started getting late. Alan followed and not long after that you and Billy returned home and he retreated to his room to give you privacy. You still took your cellphone to your room when you finally got the chance to call Owen.

“Hello?”

“What no baby for me?” You laughed. 

“If I would’ve said that it would’ve been your brother calling. Not sure why he’d be calling me this late actually.” 

“So you should’ve known it was me!” 

“You don’t usually call this late either baby.”

“I was out with Billy, Alan and Ellie. Guess why.”

“You’re through?” You could hear the excitement in his voice.

“I’m through, you’re now talking to Doctor Y/N Brennan.”

“I knew you’d do it. Congratulations baby.”

“Why thank you. That just leaves one more thing you know.”

“Hmm, what’s that?”

“We have to plan this move. I mean I’ve been packed for weeks but since we weren’t keeping in contact there wasn’t really any chance to plan much. I mean I’ve sort of planned a little as far as what I was packing and what I was leaving here since your place isn’t very big but that’s all the planning I did.”

“How much did you have to drink?” Owen laughed. You were talking so quickly that either you were that excited, had been drinking, or both.

“A bit,” You laughed back “Okay more than a bit, we took a cab but still.”

“I can tell, Miss Giddy.”

“I am that much closer to seeing you again, of course I’m giddy.” You laughed again, a thought crossing your mind. “Something else is making me giddy too.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” He really had no clue but he was enjoying this time talking to you and how happy you sounded.

“Thinking about you.”

“I’m thinking about you too, goof.”

“Not like that, the other way.”

“What other…” He started before recognizing something in the way you giggled. “Oh.”

“Mmhmm. Guess what I’m wearing.”

“Please, please tell me you are nowhere near your brother.”

“He’s in his room, I’m in mine. My door is locked. Now guess.”

“Kind of hoping it’s nothing right now.”

“Mm, close but not quite.” You teased. “Think about when you went through my drawers.”

“I’m thinking.” The first thing coming to mind being the lace bra and panty set he’d stumbled upon looking for something he couldn’t even remember what you’d told him to look for. “I’m thinking it’s grossly unfair I don’t get to see you right now.” And touch you.

“It is, I bet you’d like it even better on me.”

“I’d probably like it better on the floor.”

“That can be arranged,” You mused, leaving Owen to hear the shuffling on your end of the line.

“Was that what I think it was.”

“If you think it was me taking off that little number. Yes it was.” He was liking this little game you were playing with him and the thought of you naked for him had him palming his hard cock through his jeans. “You’re right, it looks nice on the floor.”

“Fuck baby, you have any idea what you’re doing to me right now?

“I can guess,” You laughed, leaning back on your bed “I know what I want to be doing to you right now, should I make you guess?” You heard rustling from the other end that you were reasonably sure was Owen losing at least some of his clothes. “Or should I tell you what I’m doing to myself.”

“Jesus Christ,” He swore through the phone. He wasn’t sure where this side of you was coming from but he fucking loved it. Just you wait until he had you in front of him. How the ever-loving hell you’d gone from talking about planning your move to seducing him over the phone he wasn’t sure but he was going to enjoy this.

“You like thinking about me like that don’t you, all alone and touching myself.” You teased as you ran your hand across your breasts and down your torso, wishing it was his. Your nipples hardened at the memory of Owen touching you like that.

“You better believe I do. You wet for me baby?”

“So wet,” You moaned, sinking your fingers in to your waiting heat. The sound of your moan had his cock twitch in the fist he’d formed around it.

“Don’t get quiet on me now sweet heart,” Owen scolded, hearing only your heavy breathing, presumably as you touched yourself. It made you suddenly nervous to be vocal for Owen knowing your brother was in the house, probably passed out in his room. At the same time there was a thrill that ran though you of knowing you could only be so loud or you’d be caught.

“You’re awfully quiet yourself,” You rasped. It wasn’t like it was the first time you’d masturbated but you were a bit unsure of yourself doing this with Owen on the phone. You weren’t really expecting to hear him moaning and groaning as he got himself off but you were honestly hoping he’d give a bit more in the dirty talk. Owen wasn’t dumb either, neither of you had done this over the phone and if you were anything like you had been your first night together you were probably eager but unsure of what to really do.

“I’m sorry baby, didn’t I tell you how hard I am for you right now hmm? How bad I want to pin your gorgeous little ass to that bed and finger you til you come.” You arched back as you rubbed your palm against your clit. “But I can’t do that now can I. So I’m gonna need you to take those pretty little fingers of yours and do it for me. Think you can do that.”

“I know I can do that, done it plenty of times without you,” You taunted, moaning as you curled your fingers against your spot. “God I wish you were inside me right now,” You panted “That thick cock, you’re amazing fingers, all of it.”

“I will be soon baby, and you’re going to wish you weren’t such a damn tease. Maybe if you’re a good girl and make yourself come I’ll forgive some of it.” You had to be close, god only knows that he was, listening to you moan as you fucked yourself. It was almost like being with you again, he could hear you coming to your climax as he reached his. He’d make sure you’d come louder than that when the two of you were alone again. For a time it remained largely silent, he could hear your breathing but not much else. “Still alive over there?” He finally teased.

“That was almost as good as having you here,” You panted, face red from your climax and from a slight bit of embarrassment at your little phone sex rendezvous. Not quite as much from the fact that the two of you had shared some dirty talk and you both came but more from the fact that you did it while your brother was rooms away.

“You really touch yourself like that for me?” He asked, genuinely curious.

“Usually only when a certain someone isn’t in the house so I don’t have to worry about noise level. But yes, I masturbate, thinking about you. I’m sure you’ve done the same thinking about me.”

“Damn right I have,” He assured, amused that you were still so clinical in your terminology when moments before you’d been all but begging for his thick cock as you’d put it then. “Often.”

“God I can’t wait to be there,” You readily admitted. “Shit, we were supposed to be planning that weren’t we.”

“We distracted each other.”

“And now I’m tired, the party and the booze and the phone sex had gotten to me.”

“Go to bed then, I’ll try to figure stuff out and call you in the morning. I’ve got a mess to clean up anyway.”

“You sure?” You asked groggily, digging through your suitcase for Owen’s shirt that you’d stolen years before.

“You did all the work so you could come out here, I can do some work to make it happen.”

“Alright,” You said with a yawn. “Love you Owen.”

“Love you too baby, I’ll talk to you in the morning.” You were quick to fall asleep once you hung up the phone, not even bothering to put on the shirt you’d pulled out. Owen on the other hand cleaned up the mess he’d made and sat up a while to hold up his end of the bargain. He wasn’t sure how much stuff you had that you were bringing with you but it didn’t sound like much. It should be easy enough to book you a flight out and he’d pick you up at the airport. Anything that didn’t fit in checked luggage or carry on he was sure your brother could ship out. He’d nail down the details in the morning but it was enough of a plan to satisfy him.

Queue the next morning it was the ringing of your cell phone that woke you up with a call that you nearly missed.

“Hullo?” You answered groggily, not even bothering to check the caller ID. You were still half asleep and not entirely sure why you were naked and a bit sticky.

“Morning sleepy head,” Came your response. Owen! The night before quickly came back to you. Party, home, phone sex, bed. Owen saying he’d call in the morning with a moving plan.

“Hey you.” You responded back, sitting up in bed finally.

“That’s all I get, I rocked your world last night,” Owen teased

“I rocked my own world,” You quipped back, getting out of bed to head to your bathroom and grimacing when you saw yourself in the mirror. A few minutes before you’d passed out would’ve done wonders to the mess you currently were. Smeared makeup, wild hair and stark naked. “And damn do I look like it,” You laughed.

“At least brush your hair,” Owen laughed, vividly remembering your morning after hair.

“Oh no, this mess needs more than a hair brush. Like some face wipes, a shower, a lot of conditioner and maybe I’ll look presentable. I honestly passed out as soon as we got off the phone. Big mistake.”

“I figured you’d fall right asleep. Which leads us to what I did last night after our phone call.”

“What’s the plan boss?” You laughed, wiping away your destroyed makeup before going back to your room for clothes to wear after your shower.

“You’ll hate it, it’s simple,” He teased. “We book you a flight out here, I pick you up at the airport and Billy ships out anything you can’t bring on the plane.”

“Even simpler, everything I’m bringing I can bring on the plane. It’s just clothes, my computer, my camera, the important stuff. The collections can stay right where they are.”

“That is simpler. So that work for you?”

“Works perfect, what are we thinking time table wise?”

“I’ve got another day off in a few days or we can plan farther out if you want more time.”

“I don’t need more time, like I said I’ve been packed for weeks. We did a going away party, everything here is settled. Billy is probably about as ready as he’ll ever be to let me go off and start my own adventure. So a few days works fine for me. I will handle the flight, I’ll be able to plan around my bags better than you will.”

“Looking forward to it. I’ll let you go so you can go do your girly stuff,” He teased.

“I’d call it proper hygiene stuff but alright,” You laughed back. “See you soon. Love you.”

“Love you more,” He responded, hanging up before you could argue with him about it. You sighed and shook your head at the phone before throwing it on the charger and getting cleaned up. You were dressed and cooking breakfast when Billy finally emerged, looking nearly as rough as you had.

“Jesus Billy, you couldn’t bother to change or shower?” You laughed at his rumpled clothes and disheveled appearance.

“I smelled food.”

“Go get cleaned up it isn’t ready yet anyway,” You responded, shooing him from the kitchen. It wouldn’t take long for breakfast to be done but you also knew it wouldn’t take your brother long to get cleaned up and dressed for the day either.

“So what’d Owen say when you told him?” Billy knew you’d have called Owen nearly as soon as the two of you had gotten home. The news could’ve waited for morning but that wasn’t how any of you ever did things.

“He got super excited and congratulated me.” You responded, offering him a cup of coffee and topping off your own. “About how I was hoping he’d react. He called back this morning so we could figure out a plan for the move.”

“You fell asleep on the phone again didn’t you?” Billy laughed.

“Not this time, but he knew I was tired so he said he’d plan and I could sleep.”

“So what’s the plan then, fly out in a few minute,” Billy teased

“A few days,” You laughed back “I told him I’ll make the flight plans since I’m the one with the luggage and whatnot, and he can just worry about picking me up at the airport.”

“I’m proud of you, you know that? You’ve come a long way in the last six years.”

“It was a struggle,” You admitted. You remembered how you used to be. No one could’ve paid or forced you to leave Billy’s side and, in a few days, you’d be leaving him for a man that you were definitely seeing as the love of your life. You had an impressive school career that you were going to build off and you already had prior experience in one of those fields. Six years seemed like it had been so long ago. “I couldn’t have done it without you though.” Your drive to succeed, your desire to experience new things and learn. All of it had come from Billy. Sure, you had Alan and Ellie to thank for some things, and of course Owen to thank for others but you knew without your brother you wouldn’t have even close to the life you had right now. And you told him as much. He was quiet for a while after that which was a little unusual for your brother.

“So I got you something, well I had it made but whatever.” He said after a while, leaving for a moment before coming back with something behind his back. “I know you’re not going to move off with Owen and forget about me, but I figured you might like something to remember us all by,” He continued, setting a reasonably large photo album in front of you.

“Aw Billy!” You felt yourself tearing up as you looked through the pages. Pictures from when you first got there, some from the trips he’d taken you on and dig sites, some from at home and some he must’ve printed at some time between last night and then because they were from your party. “I love it,” You responded, wiping your eyes before you hugged him. “I could never forget you guys.”

“You can fill in the rest of it yourself,” Billy added when the two of you let go of each other. “New adventures and all.” 

“I will probably overfill it,” You laughed. The next few days you spent going about your business as if nothing was about to change at all. You spent days at the dig site and nights bantering with your brother. When it finally came time to catch your flight, somehow you and Billy both managed to remain stoic.

“Call me when you get in, and do try not to forget this time,” Billy asked.

“I will try to do it as soon as I get off the plane and before I see Owen. That way I don’t get distracted and forget like last time.”

“Stay safe, when you come back to visit I expect you in one piece.”

“I will!” You laughed, hearing the call for your flight. “Love you. Got to go, see you not so far in the future,” You said, getting in one last hug.

“Love you too, enjoy your new adventure.” The flight wasn’t any different than the first and only other time you’d gone out to see Owen. The excitement you had was about the same too, going to see your best friend, except this time he was more than that and it wasn’t just a visit. As before the flight felt like it took forever. This time however you did remember your promise to your brother.

“Okay, we’ve landed, I am safely on the ground. Well it’s the second story so not the ground but you know what I mean. No the flight was terribly boring. No I haven’t seen him yet,” You were saying when you felt a pair of arms wrap around you from behind. “No he found me,” You laughed “Alright talk to you later.”

“You actually remembered to call your brother without being reminded?”

“I made sure to do it before I saw you so I wouldn’t forget again,” You laughed, twisting around in his arms. “Miss me?” Judging by the way he kissed you it was a resounding yes, or just Owen trying to make you go weak in the knees. Or both knowing him. When he pulled away you almost instinctively looked around to make sure your brother wasn’t standing there making grossed out faces.

“Us alone is going to take some getting used to,” Owen admitted before you could. He’d nearly done the same thing you had.

“Well I for one am already enjoying having you to myself, but we aren’t exactly alone.” And you had gotten a few looks from some passersby. You didn’t blame them; Owen was good for staring at.

“Yeah. We should probably grab your things and go home.”

“Home sounds good.” Weird to say, but it definitely sounded good. Calling this place home would take getting used to after six years of calling Montana home. Owen’s place hadn’t changed virtually at all, except for maybe the addition of a dresser that you were fairly certain was there specifically for your use. “What?” You questioned, realizing that Owen was staring at you.

“Just waiting to do this,” He mused before pulling you to him and kissing you again, deeper than he had at the airport.

“Mm,” You mumbled against his lips, wrapping your arms around his neck. “This better be the soon you were talking about,” You muttered as he kissed down your neck. You grinned when he lifted your shirt over your head. You hadn’t expected Owen would hold out long so you’d put on the lace set before you left Montana. Good choice.

“Bed, now,” He ordered, giving you the chance to get there yourself. You backed slowly towards the bed, kicking off your shoes as you went. As you leaned back against the bed you realized that the old picture he’d had of the three of you were no longer hanging above the bed. Just as well.

“Why do I keep having to tell you to take your clothes off hmm?”

“Because you’re impatient,” He responded, pulling off his shirt anyway. You’d have to settle for equal ground for the time being as Owen busied himself kissing up your torso as he undid the button on your jeans. “Like I said,” He added when you tried to shimmy out of your jeans. He pressed his weight against you as his mouth returned to your neck, sucking little marks along your collar bone.

“Well you’re a tease!” You both knew damn well he knew what you wanted and it wasn’t him leaving hickies all over. It was Owen though and he moved at his own pace, the only reason he finally took your pants off was to get the full effect of the sexy little set you were wearing. Glowering at him you crossed your arms over your chest. Owen’s solution was to simply laugh and pin your arms above your head.

“Pouting isn’t going to get you what you want,” He laughed, teasing you with the hand he wasn’t using to keep you from moving your arms. You both knew you could get free, especially with Owen only bothering to use one hand to hold you but it was a little game you were playing with each other for now. A game that admittedly Owen was winning. As you got used to your newfound sexuality, you’d start finding out the ways to push his buttons instead. One way you quickly realize was that he couldn’t quite control your legs and using said leg to stroke him with got him to about jump out of his skin.

“You’re not the only one that can tease Owen.” You reminded, rather amused with yourself.

“I guess I’ll have to give you something better to do then,” He responded, releasing your arms to undo your bra and toss them on the floor with the matching panties. You didn’t resist the moan that emerged when he dipped his fingers inside you. God that was so much better than when you did it yourself.

“Mm, make me come.” You pleaded. Owen was more than happy to oblige your request, though he only kept up with his fingers a short while before they were replaced with his tongue. Owen, once again, had to hold your hips in place as you tried to grind against him. This time however, he didn’t leave you with a tease and a brief nip. His tongue dipped in to your heat, lapping at you. When he’d seemingly had his fill, he moved his mouth to your nub and his fingers replaced his tongue. “Fuck Owen!” You cried out, arching back as his attentions brought you to climax.

“Need a break?” He offered softly. You almost considered it, it has been a long flight but no. You weren’t done with him nearly this soon.

“Not hardly,” You responded, sitting up to kiss him and use his compliance to get him on his back.

“Now who’s the tease,” He mumbled when you popped open the button on his jeans and slid your hand inside.

“I can’t let you have all the fun silly.” You returned, undoing his zipper as your other hand stroked him.

“Babe.”

“Don’t babe me, I let you play, now let me.” You stripped him off his remaining clothes and took him back in your hand, his cock weighing heavy and beaded with his pre-cum. You took the tip of him in your mouth, grinning as Owen swore. “Owen!” You scolded when he grabbed you flipped you back on to your back. He responded by nipping at your lips and parting your legs so he could slide in to you. Always next time, came the very fleeting thought as you wrapped your legs around his waist. You could still taste yourself as his tongue slid against yours.

Owen wasn’t quiet as cautious with you this time as he had been the first, especially knowing that you’d been spending your alone time playing with yourself. It let him worry less about hurting you, which as a result was making this all the more enjoyable for you both. His thick cock still stretched you, gave you that incredible pressure that drove you to match his thrusts. As you arched back you were glad those pictures were gone, they’d have certainly put a damper on the mood, but not the way you clenched around Owen as your body tensed and you cried out his name. Owen rode out your orgasm, kissing you again as he pumped his release in to you.

“I could use that break now,” You panted, half laughing as you did. You pouted a little when he withdrew from you to pull the covers over the two of you, but happily snuggled up against him when he laid back down next to you. Owen wasn’t surprised that it took you virtually no time at all to fall asleep but he didn’t mind. He had you back in his arms where you belonged and this time he wouldn’t have to give you up.


	6. Chapter 6

Life with Owen was expectedly different than life with Billy in ways other than the romantic connection. For starters there was a lot less for you to do around here. Owen may not have been in any rush for you to get a job but you were starting to get bored out of your mind. You didn’t mind the close quarters or spending time with Owen in the least but a girl needed to have something to do. You were not so secretly thrilled when you got hired on at a local reptile park. Given the size and teeth on some of said reptiles Owen was a little concerned but at the end of the day he figured you could handle it. If not he’d have to deal with Billy on his ass for letting you get hurt. Why you had to be so excited to work with alligators and crocodiles he really didn’t know but your enthusiasm for it was endearing.

You knew Owen was being much more understanding about your new job than Billy would’ve been. Somehow you didn’t think working with giant reptiles would’ve gone over very well with him. Plus the snakes, and the regular size lizards with sharp teeth. So it could be a dangerous job and your boss didn’t actually have all of his fingers, your coworkers all seemed to. You were most excited for the crocodilian species but you’d already been told you’d have to work your way up to working with them, just because of your lack of physical experience dealing with some of the animal…most of the animals. You were pretty sure they weren’t as impressed by your degrees as they were your enthusiasm but you had yourself a job.

Most times you and Owen worked pretty similar hours, you put in extra time to prove yourself and he just had long hours. You still weren’t sure you believe he actually had permission to bring you to see his little pod of dolphins but it had been not only exciting for you but Owen had been thrilled for you to see what he’d been working on all this time. He gave you the same courtesy when you took him to the park and introduced him to some of the creatures you’d been working with, including a snake large enough that it might’ve made your brother faint. You of course loved them all, and sent your brother pictures of them including the snake which he called you and swore at you for.

Things were going smoother than you imagined, but then again Owen had been on again off again living with you guys for a few years so you were already largely used to each other. It was a few months before you went back to visit Billy, Owen was going to be gone for the week on an open water exercise with the pod so you took some time off work to go visit your brother. Most of your updates were things he already knew but you did hold one thing back from him. You’d been receiving offers to go work at Jurassic World. Masrani Global had built a new park on Isla Nublar, which you heard was doing spectacularly. With your reputation you’d built in Montana, and your degrees, they of course wanted you to come work there and they’d tried quite a bit to lure you in including offering you your choice of dinosaur to work with or any other location in the park. None of their tactics had worked. You weren’t about to ditch Owen to go work on a dinosaur filled island how many miles away where you’d once again never be seeing each other. It completely defeated the purpose of moving out here. There was also that voice in the back of your head reminding you what had happened both times you’d gone near dinosaurs.

Owen had offered you his support if it was something you wanted to do but you both knew it wasn’t something he was thrilled about either. You’d refused every offer regardless. You were happy where you were, you were finally working with some of the smaller crocs and you had your relationship. You had no desire to give any of that up any time soon, or at all when it came to you and Owen. You were very protective of your relationship and of Owen. More than once you’d had some harsh words for anyone that questioned it. As far as you were concerned everything was as close to perfect as it could be. Something you had never imagined ever enjoying had become the center of your life and you loved it. You loved living with Owen, waking up next to him and falling asleep with him every night. You loved taking turns cooking dinner and surprising him with the occasionally baked good after a long day. You loved your job, the little apartment you shared with Owen, you loved it all.

Moments like this you particularly loved. Just laying in bed with Owen, your head on his chest and his fingers stroking your hair. You could’ve spent the rest of your life with Owen’s other arm draped across your back, just enjoying the quiet and enjoying each other. Rare days off together were often spent like this. Long periods of time in bed, only getting up when absolutely necessary. Something seemed to be on Owen’s mind today, he was quieter than usual and had taken a particular interest in just holding you, touching you, anything that kept him close to you. You were beginning to suspect it had something to do with the way too secretive phone call he’d shared with your brother the day before, and you only knew who he was on the phone with because he’d told you when you asked. He’d just refused to say anything else about it. Something was going on and eventually you’d confront him about it but for now you were too content to want to interrupt the peace. Which Owen did anyway when he slid out from under you and got out of bed.

“Aw, I was comfy,” You whined “And very content and now you’ve spoiled it all.” You continued, even after Owen walked out of the room. “Where’d you go?” He obviously hadn’t gone to the bathroom and you didn’t hear the fridge either. At the same time, he hadn’t left the apartment either, but he was being suspiciously quiet. You were sitting on the edge of the bed when he came back. “You’re acting weird and I don’t like it.” You stated plainly. He should know by now it drove you nuts when he got quiet about something or started acting outside of the usual. You were expecting to shoo him away when he knelt down in front of you. No nookie until he explained himself. He liked distracting you with it way too much.

“You know how much I love you?” Him and his open-ended starting sentences like that when he knew they made you panic and worry.

“Owen.” You warned. You’d give him a swift kick pretty soon and he knew it.

“You make it so hard to have a moment, you just worry too much.” Owen laughed. Glad someone thought this was amusing.

“Yeah, did I ever tell you the last thing my mother said to me before she dumped me in Montana was don’t worry, I love you? So yeah, I get worried.” You hadn’t told him that, both of you knew it wasn’t meant as an actually question, more an expression of your growing irritation.

“You are never getting rid of me Y/N. Not ever. And if you wouldn’t interrupt you wouldn’t have to get worried.” He responded, taking one of your hands. He was trying to be reassuring but you’d managed to start upsetting yourself already so it really wasn’t helping much. “But you know how much I love you, and how much I’ve loved having you here this last year.”

“I’ve loved it too,” You responded, interrupting him anyway and getting a warning look from Owen, who had officially decided to give up before your mood was so far gone that his plan was shot regardless.

“Marry me.” It shut you up pretty quickly and the face you were making at him was pretty similar to the face you’d made years ago when you realized he wanted to date you. The ring he displayed in front of you was white gold base inlaid with dinosaur bone and instead of a diamond sat a piece of meteorite. He knew you didn’t like fancy stuff; you didn’t like yellow gold and you thought that diamonds were interesting in their creation but overly pretty. It was a very you sort of engagement ring and all Owen wanted right now was for you to open your mouth and say something. Preferably yes.

“Oh.” Maybe not that. He was starting to think he should’ve planned this for a different day. You on the other hand were simply stunned and largely oblivious. You would’ve probably caught some of the hints if you weren’t. And it took you a solid minute to even notice the ring, and another minute of examining the ring and identifying it’s elements before it properly dawned on you that Owen was in fact on his knees proposing to you. “Oh, shit. I mean not shit. Jesus Christ. Yes, not the other stuff.” You damn near gave Owen heart failure in the process but you finally managed the yes you were trying to answer with.

“Sure about that?” Oh, shit, Jesus Christ, weren’t things that exactly inspire confidence in a man.

“Yes! Oh my god wow. Is this why you’ve been. Son of a bitch you asked me brother if you could marry me, didn’t you?!” That’s why he’d been acting so weird since the phone call. “Aw you did!” You said, responding to his nod, feeling yourself getting teary eyed as you wrapped your arms around him. “Sap.”

“Only for you baby. You maybe want your ring or you want to just keep hugging me,” He laughed.

“Honestly both,” You responded, letting him go for the time being anyway to let him put the ring on your finger. It went well with the promise ring you still wore on the other hand. You had no intention of taking either off. “I’m sorry I’m so oblivious sometimes.”

“Yeah, got to admit you had me worried there for a bit. But if I wanted a typical reaction, I wouldn’t have been asking you now would I,” Owen teased but you both knew it was true. You weren’t typical and the entire time he’d known you he loved that about you. You hadn’t been a typical friend or girlfriend and now you’d be his completely not typical fiancée. “God, I fucking love you,” He muttered before pulling you to him for a kiss. Which naturally turned in to you muttering to him to take his clothes off, again. He’d teach you some patience eventually.

“You know, I never really pictured myself getting married.” You mused some time later, your head back on Owen’s chest and his arms wrapped around you again. “Dating sure but I just never saw myself wanting to marry someone.”

“What changed your mind.” He asked softly.

“Well you obviously, but that’s not what you mean I know.” You responded. “I guess it was just realizing I never wanted to live without you again. I never thought I’d have that with someone or even trust them enough that I’d be willing to commit. I mean I’m sure Billy probably told you about the same thing.”

“In his own way I guess he pretty much did.”

“Like I can’t speak for myself,” You laughed.

“The two of you are so alike it’s scary sometimes it really is.”

“Did I mention that I love the ring, because I really love the ring.”

“You’ve mentioned it several times in the last few hours babe,” Owen laughed, thrilled that you loved his choice. Before you made love, while you were making love the first time, before the second time, the second time, and so on. You’d been quite vocal about your affection for it, and him for that matter. Okay you’d been quite vocal in general.

“Being with you has been the best four years of my life.”

“I can definitely say the same thing, even if they haven’t been perfect.”

“I don’t want perfect, I just want you.” Hey, you were allowed to be sappy too. It was hard to imagine that the two of you had been together the last four years, it didn’t seem nearly that long. Then again nothing with Owen seemed to drag by, it never had.

“You’ve got me babe, and you always will. No matter what.” Your worries that somehow this wouldn’t work out had faded over the last year of living here. You’d made it work and now you were engaged. In whatever period of time it took to plan and have a wedding you’d be together forever, end of story. You believed Owen when he said that. You’d always have each other no matter what.

You spent the following months trying to plan your wedding. You’d gotten as far as knowing you’d do it in Montana and that Billy would walk you down the aisle. You had resorted to reading wedding planning books and actually buying some sort of journal type thing that was supposed to help. You had discovered the downside to not having a female presence in your life. It didn’t help matters that the two of you could barely decide on a season to get married let alone a date. It had been narrowed down to late spring, summer or early fall. You couldn’t decide on colors until you had a date. Since you couldn’t decide on colors you couldn’t decide on flowers. You also didn’t want to pick a dress until you had a date either. It was an unholy mess and you wanted to rip your hair out. Getting your doctorates had been easier than planning a wedding. And you’d have thought having your hours at the park cut because of budget cuts would’ve helped but no, it was just more free time to stress about not having a plan.

Owen tried to help where he could but he still spent most of his time with the pod and things were starting to get messed up with the entire program so like you, he had his own work stress on top of planning a wedding, which of course had no idea how to do. He’d honestly been taking the approach of trying to stay out of your way ever since a phone call with Billy where you’d gone absolutely berserk on him for asking how the plans were going and suggesting you throw darts at calendar pages to decide on a date. You were apparently a very testy woman when you were stressed out. Owen was fine with finding that out via Billy rather than personally.

“How about just going with early summer?” You asked, hoping for some feedback, or at least a confirmation the plan was okay with Owen.

“Sounds fine to me,” He responded, catching himself before he told you that whatever you wanted was fine by him. Somehow he didn’t think that response would go over too well with you.

“I just feel like spring will still be too wet and fall in Montana is so damn iffy.”

“Summer is fine babe. So like June?” Even without narrowing it down to summer it still would’ve put the wedding at the earliest in to next year.

“Right, okay so it’s not an exact date but it’s close enough maybe now we can figure things out.”

“Can I say something without you threatening to feed me to one of your crocs?” Owen ventured.

“I can’t make that promise.”

“Of course not,” He said with a sigh. “Look, I am definitely as invested in us having this wedding as you are. But a lot of what we still have to figure out is really more of your preference than it is mine.”

“Are you telling me to plan the rest myself?”

“No,” Owen responded quickly. “But I’m saying that now that we almost have a date you don’t have to run every single little detail by me. I want to help you make the choices but it might go faster if you narrow them down first to what you like the best.” He was approaching very dangerous territory and he was desperately hoping you didn’t take that the wrong way.

“Like pick a top three then you help me pick a top?”

“Or a top five or whatever you think is better. I think we know each other well enough by now that we don’t need to check every little thing over with each other.”

“I guess that’ll work.” He had a point. There wasn’t going to be a bridal party because neither of you were really close enough to people to bother. Which you’d have left groomsmen up to him anyway. Flowers were a little narrowed down by both of you to no roses and now with June as the planned month the rest should be easier. Besides, you knew that as much as you were ready to tear your hair out over this wedding, Owen was ready to do the same over work. Let him deal with those troubles and you could make some choices about flowers and reception venues.

You knew it was a matter of time before the reptile park was shut down. The owner was getting older, the money just wasn’t there and when it finally happened you weren’t surprised. Despite the struggles timing seemed to be working out fairly well. Despite the so-called top-secret project, Owen did tell you thinks about his work with the pod now and again. For example, they were going to be deploying his pod on a mission so he was going to be gone for a bit. He wasn’t sure how long. You however were going to use that time to get as much planning done on the wedding as humanly possible and surprise him when he got back.

You had a few sets of color schemes you’d decided that you liked, most of them largely neutral with one or two bolder colors thrown in. You’d managed a few flower combinations that didn’t involve the disliked roses that most brides seemed to favor and you’d even stopped a few places to look at wedding dresses while Owen was away. You felt good about the progress that you were making. Which made a good time for one of you.

Owen had been having increasing trouble with the MK 9 program and this was the nail in the coffin. The deployment in the Persian Gulf had nearly turned in to a disaster with the dolphins alerting them to an incoming object that Owen’s captain nearly fired a missile at. A completely not dangerous object. Owen had been holding out some hope that they could make things work out but the next day the order came down to disband the entire project. Their plan was to simply release the dolphins, which Owen had reared, into the wild where they would die without human intervention. His captain had given him an idea for someone to relocate the dolphins but the cost was something that he wasn’t quite prepared for. He had time to think, not much but enough that he could go home and at least talk to you first.

“What happened?” Were the first words out of your mouth when Owen walked through the door. He looked like he’d been through hell and back and he definitely didn’t look happy. He accepted your kiss but didn’t provide any answers.

“Lemme get a shower,” Was all he said before he left you to wonder what exactly had gone on. You put the wedding journal back on the shelf you’d been keeping it on and waited for Owen to come back. There was plenty of time to discuss plans but something was obviously up and that wasn’t going to wait. Your worries that he’d somehow gotten hurt were alleviated when he came through to the bedroom with nothing but a towel on. You gave him the space to get dressed and waited in the living room until he slumped down on the couch next to you.

“So what’s up?” You asked again. He’d been fine when he left, eager and hopeful like he always was when he worked with his pod. Owen knew he wasn’t supposed to but he recounted the disaster to you anyway, you were going to be his wife, he wasn’t going to keep things from you. Let alone when it resulted in something that was going to affect your relationship one way or the other.

“So, they wanted to release the pod.”

“They can’t do that they were raised by humans; they’d die in the wild!” You had been quite to that point but you couldn’t believe that a group that had been training all these animals could honestly consider something that would absolutely result in the death of animals. “Owen you can’t let them do that there has to be another way.”

“There is another way, you’re just not going to like it.”

“Please don’t say Sea World.” But even that would probably beat dying in the wild.

“No. The captain has someone that’ll relocate the pod but in exchange they get me.”

“What do you mean? Owen say something.” You could feel that sensation in the pit of your stomach and the sinking feeling in your chest. This wasn’t going to be good.

“I go work for them.”

“Work for who where?!”

“Masrani Global.” He still left out the where. That didn’t have to be a bad thing, just let them know the two of you had a wedding in Montana in June and relocate to wherever. The company had stuff just about everywhere and you needed a new job anyway, maybe Owen could throw that in to the deal.

“Okay, well they’ve got facilities all over the place,” Hell, you’d been eying one or two in the area that would let you go back to your croc work. “Which one?”

“The one on Isla Nublar.” Your heart sank even more. Owen was going to the fucking dinosaur park?! “Look, I haven’t agreed to anything yet, they’re giving me time to think it over.”

“But this is your only option to save the pod Owen, that isn’t a decision you should have to make.” You’d been there with him on this project since the beginning. He had raised those dolphins they meant the world to him.

“So I should’ve just agreed and run off to Isla Nublar without saying a word to you. We’re supposed to be getting married! This isn’t a drive down the road or moving cross country Y/N.”

“I know that Owen and I appreciate that you wanted to discuss it with me but this isn’t a discussion anymore. You can’t let something happen to the pod, they’re defenseless animals.”

“So you’re saying I should take the job.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying Owen. We’re both adults here but you have a responsibility to the pod to protect them and if this is the option then you’re just going to have to take it.” Which left one little problem, your relationship. You both knew plans had to change and quickly but the bigger problem was how. The thought of Owen going to that island made you sick with fear. Sure he’d heard stories from you and Billy but stories were a lot different than being on an island full of things that would love to eat you, even if the park had been running successfully for years without incident. It was probably perfectly safe and you were worrying for no reason.

“And what about us.” Right for the deeper question, and he expected an answer then, you could tell by the way he looked at you. You weighed your options with the new knowledge that relocating with Owen meant going back to dinosaurs, going to Isla Nublar. They’d been trying for years to get you to come work there and you’d politely refused. Part of you had told yourself it was because of Owen, because of his career and everything he had going on and you didn’t want to do long distance again. That excuse was gone now. But the other part was still there and that was the fear. The absolute terror that came with the idea of facing animals that had nearly killed you not once but twice before.

You tried to consider rationally and not let fear dictate. The animals at Jurassic World had been well contained since the park opened and none of them had escaped. Every time they’d offered you a job it was with your choice of location so you needn’t go anywhere near the pterosaurs or the t-rex and they didn’t even have a Spinosaurus. When you thought about it you didn’t even fear any of the animals as an individual, it was more the fear of dinosaurs running rampant trying to eat people and clearly Masrani Global was doing a wonderful job keeping that from happening. Common sense tried to remind you that so did InGen until suddenly something changed.

“I come with you,” You responded after more consideration than Owen had been entirely comfortable sitting through. The answer wasn’t what he expected in the least.

“You come with me?”

“Yes. They’ve been trying to get me on board for how long and it was enticing but I had you and your career to think about. I wasn’t going to walk away from us to go work on Isla Nublar.” You hadn’t mentioned that the calls had gone from being hiring reps, to some park admin to Simon Masrani himself. Or How much they’d been offering for you to come work there but you supposed you could now. “Look, I’ve had Simon Masrani himself on the phone offering me a small fortune to come work at the park, if they want me that bad and they obviously want you we make it work to our advantage. I’m sure there’s somewhere that we could work together at the park.”

“You’re seriously about this.” Owen responded, still surprised that the woman who by age seventeen had nearly been eaten by dinosaurs on two separate occasions wanted to come work with him on an island full of said dinosaurs.

“Very. I mean I’m sure Billy won’t like it, or Alan or Ellie but I’m a grown woman now. It’s my decision and I’m choosing us. Besides, dinosaurs in enclosures could be nice to enjoy even if they aren’t accurate.”

“Won’t like it? Your brother is going to come out here and kill me.”

“We’ll tell him once we’re on the island. He’ll have to go there to get to us and I don’t think he’ll do it.”

“Alright, so what about the wedding then?” Ah, the other hiccup.

“I did actually think about that.” During your consideration you had thought about what you were going to do about the wedding you were trying to plan. “So I’m assuming they’d want us soon not like next year, and there’s no way I can plan in this in a few days or a week. So I think we have two options. Completely postpone the entire thing until whenever we come back to have our minimal human connections there, or we go down to the courthouse and get married before we go.” Owen had even fewer human connections than you. He wasn’t close to any of his coworkers, his best friend was your brother. You just had your brother and the guidance of Alan and Ellie so that was like not even a dozen people to consider. There was actually a third option that you had just thought of at that moment that would also work. “Or,” You started

“Or what,” Owen returned. He wouldn’t mind a third option that didn’t involve indefinitely putting the wedding off or eloping.

“Or we get married before we go and have an actual wedding when we get back. Do we have time to fly out to Montana? We can tell Billy that we’re relocating and won’t be able to have the wedding for a while so we’re doing a small civil thing.”

“Well I like this option the best if we’re being honest. I don’t really think he’d appreciate us eloping and running off to work with dinosaurs.”

“So I mean we have a plan. We accept the job, tell them to give us a few days, go out and get married. Then down the road we get married again,” You laughed. It was something. You kept Owen; you’d be doing something you’d probably enjoy. It had to work.

“This is not how I pictured marrying you I want you to know that.”

“It isn’t how I pictured marrying you either but we don’t know how long this will be and I don’t want to wait years down the road to marry you so we improvise.” And that you did. You got Simon Masrani on speaker phone to inform him that not only did Owen accept his offer but you did was well under the condition that you lived and worked with Owen. The man seemed all too eager to agree to your conditions. You had your couple of days to fly out to Montana, celebrate, pack and fly out to Isla Nublar.

Billy was understandably suspicious of the whole thing, but he wanted to see his sister getting married so he accepted it and acted as witness in the little courthouse wedding that you and Owen had agreed upon. You celebrated that night with drinks and caught a red-eye back home to finish packing the minimal belongings you and Owen had and tie up loose ends, at least that’s what you told Billy. You also didn’t stay long because it’s hard to celebrate your marriage staying with your brother.

Owen had white dress you’d donned for the occasion off halfway before you’d even gotten through the door and while you wouldn’t have minded where you were, the neighbors across the way might not have appreciated the two of you consummating your marriage against your front door…outside. Inside was a whole other story, that was at least in the privacy of the packed-up apartment. You still had to remind him to take off his damn clothes because once again you found yourself naked while he was still dressed and as far as you were concerned, no good for what you wanted. For once he didn’t argue with you, just tossed off your clothes and pinned you against the front door with a heated kiss. The cool metal on your bare skin made you jump, which Owen took as an opportunity to lift you up and place your legs around his waist before sliding in to you and pressing you back against the door. After the door was the couch, the hallway on the way to the bedroom and finally the rest of the evening was spent in bed. Your flight out wasn’t until the afternoon so you spent much of the night wrapped up in each other. You made love again that morning and again in the shower before you finally managed to get dressed and make it to the airstrip. Simon Masrani greeted you personally when you landed.

“Welcome to Jurassic World Mr. Grady, Doctor Brennan. Or do you prefer Grady now.” Oh how polite, a question you didn’t actually have an answer to yet because it hadn’t been on the time table to discuss. Hell, the two of you hadn’t even finished all the paperwork yet. Still, you liked that he called you by your title.

“Uhm, I suppose it is Grady now,” You responded somewhat sheepishly, getting a beaming response from your new husband as the two of you followed Masrani to a wait enclosed, air-conditioned jeep. You were surprised at how far out the jeep took you, finally stopping at an airstream trailer next to a little bungalow by the water.

“Now these accommodations are just temporary, the team hasn’t had the chance to put the finishing touches on your apartment yet.” As you and Owen looked around neither of you saw anything wrong with the place, it wasn’t near anyone that you could see, the view was spectacular and honestly you thought it was great. Though you could understand how a man like Masrani wouldn’t want his employees roughing it, you could only imagine what this apartment looked like. You and Owen shared a look.

“Actually we don’t mind this at all, we’d probably prefer it.” Owen chimed in. Both of you were more than fine with being away from people. Masrani shrugged but let it go.

“So what exactly are we going to be doing here?” You asked before you were led back to the jeep for another ride, this one stopping at what appeared to be a largely deserted enclosure save for the people working on it.

“Let me first say how glad we are to have you both, we’ve been holding off on this project in hopes of recruiting you Dr. Grady.” It still threw you off to be referred to by Owen’s name. “Now, this project will be in collaboration with our subsidiary InGen.” The sound of that company’s name made you cringe but you let him continue. “And now with both of your skills we’re very confident in it’s success. We would like the two of you to work with the animals. Test their intelligence and see how well they’ll listen to humans.”

“I see why Owen is helpful here but I’m not sure where I come in,”

“Your experience and knowledge of velociraptors makes you perfect for the position.”

“I’m sorry what?!” You said, freezing where you were.


End file.
